Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Why 14-year-olds don’t run the world (as yet another baseball season ends)
Great story, Mick. My brother and I used to go to our local “pizzera” for a slice and an Italian ice as often as we could talk our dad into it, which was often, because he loved to eat pizza. This was on the Upper West Side and that place got changed to some sort boutique (I don’t even know how to spell that and don’t want to know) over a decade ago. I still look for those cherry italian ices (and find them sometimes) at the grocery store.
The “rod carew at 2 and 2” line that your dad lved so much reminds me of my dad as well...he always found things that we thought at the time to be “stupid,” funny.
I’m trying to think of a story to tell...later.
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 08:13 AMOh yeah...and I am getting a little excited about the Knicks this year, for the first time in a long time.
“wrong”
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 08:14 AMG’morning, JOS. Do you mean “Marino’s” ices? With the little flat wooden spoon?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 08:26 AMExactly!
I buy popsicles here in PR, but they just ain’t the same.
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 08:56 AMIn honor of Michael’s (and Mudge’s, and whomever else’s) hangover this morning I’d like to say that I have 60 days clean and sober today. Damn, do I feel good.
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 09:26 AMmy head hurts!
Posted by michael on from scotland 10/29 at 09:43 AMLovely story. I hope to see you tonight!
Posted by Christine Hamm on from Astoria 10/29 at 09:44 AMCongrats, JOS. Wishing you 60 years.
Michael, surely you’re not surprised.
Christine (http://chamm.blogspot.com): Yes, Michele and I are planning to stop by.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 09:49 AMno. self inflicted injury and all that.
as we all know, there are two ways out of a hangover - back to the pub or you eat your way out.
i can’t decide!
Posted by michael on from scotland 10/29 at 09:52 AMThe only drinking you should do today, Michael, is “water.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 09:53 AMI “want” a Vicodin for this one. Ooooh, I am a lightweight. Three G&Ts woulda been the pre-dinner drinks when I lived in Manhattan. Now owwww, and this is after a lot of water and a hard-boiled egg with a pancake-wrapped sausage on a stick. Tasty, but I still hurt.
JOS: YOU ROCK!! I second the wish for 60 years of clean and sober living.
Michael: grunt
MZ, I loved your tale! I was watching the moon landing at school because I took summer school classes in 1969 while my newly divorced mama worked two jobs to make ends meet. We had a Frankenthaler on the walls of our apartment, but she worked two jobs rather than sell it. But the “one small step for man” moment was so great!! The rest bored others, I was glued to the set. I wanted then, and still want now, to be Walter Cronkite when I grow up: erudite, infectiously enthusiastic, and deeply learned without being condescending.
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/29 at 10:58 AMMZ’s [Wide Angle[/i] moment reminds me of my has-been moments. I wrote some romances while I was in college (no, I won’t tell you) and was I proud! They were crappy, of course, but they were mine! I was too embarrassed to look for them in bookstores, and they didn’t have my own name or my photo on them, so it would’ve meant picking up something with a woman’s name on it, with a gaily (term used in older sense, today’s queers have GOOD taste) colored picture on it, in the ROMANCE aisle...well, just not happenin’.
Two years after the last one, I was in Austin’s ancient second-hand bookstore, The Book Stall, when I spied a pristine copy of the second romance under my pen name (not a chance, I haven’t even told my agent)...pristine as in no cracks on the spine, no signs of having been shipped, still less read! It was as though it had simply parthenogenetically >sproing< materialized on the table!!
Owwwwwwwwwwwwww
I carefully carried my little darling to the front, put it gently on the counter, and the troll at the register said, “That’ll be fifty cents” before I could moo a heartbroken line.
“I...I...don’t want to buy it,” I quavered by way of starting my end of the conversation. The troll grabbed my Sacred Object, my Toiled-for Treasure, and heaved it into a box. No further communicative grunts, I wasn’t a paying customer so I ceased to exist. Who knew trolls were descended from dinosaurs? Pea-sized brainlets, eyes that only function when prey is in sight, gray scaly skin...you’ve seen them.
“I wondered if you get a lot of those,” I managed to squeak over the outraged anguish lodged in my throat.
“Of what?” grunted the troll.
“Those romances, the one I brought up,” i replied. “Dunno, they’re all pretty much the same. We don’t track titles on ‘em.”
“How about authors?”
A trollish laugh, like the sound of a frog hitting a dissecting tray, affronted my tender authorial ears. “Authors?! That’s too much! The hacks that churn these out can’t be authors. The publishers don’t even know who half of ‘em are. Funny!”
I slunk away. I was dismissed as a hack and called a piece of useless gristly meat by someone who probably wrote fantasy letters to Penthouse as his only sexual outlet.
I wasn’t even a has-been, nor a never-wasl I was lame even at failure! I was a hemidemisemi-been. A blocked romance writer.
Oh, the shame. The shame. Nineteen eighty-three: The end of my life. The Orioles took the Series 4-1. Reagan was “President” and proclaimed it the “Year of the Bible.” Iran invaded Iraq in their ongoing campaign to kill each other off. Alicia hits Texas. Star Wars “defense” system the Hitler Diaries the Korean Air Lines disaster oh and let’s not forget how close we came that year to a nuclear war! Not that we knew it then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
But the crowning blow: I sweated blood to create...used books.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/29 at 11:37 AMi have never heard or seen a frog hitting a dissecting tray but i will be sure to listen out next time!
i’m all watered out mickey.
gonna head ‘south’
new post http://www.thumpingthetub.blogspot.com
Posted by michael on from scotland 10/29 at 11:55 AMShoot, Mudge, if I were you I would have bought that tremendous accomplishment and displayed it proudly on my living room coffee table. I mean, I’m thinking of framing the flimsy piece of scrap paper I received for the Editor’s Award I “won” from Poetry.com. That’s how proud I am of any writing I’ve done that’s received any sort of recognition...let alone an entire novel that someone took the time to print and bind. Of course, I am expecting a masterpiece of fiction from you at some point in the near future.
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 11:56 AMIt was only one of five, I was over it by then, JOS. And the only book ever to have my name on it, so far, is a collection of gay love quotes that St. Martin’s published in, what, 1997? Teeny little gift-sized thing. In Your Eyes, it was called, with two luscious hunks romantically entwined...lovers, too, I found out when one of them became a client of mine.
My family members were too embarrassed by it to display it on their coffee tables. I found my father’s inscribed copy in a used bookstore. I just lost interest in the priase parts of this business after that.
“[A] masterpiece of fiction” is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay outside my capabilities, but thanks for the confidence! I strive to entertain, not to expand the boundaries of human expression.
All Expendables! Dear hearts and closeted novelists! Only august MZ, Owe, JOS, and me have signed up as Expendable Novelists so far! I exhort each of you, and the trolls and the lurkers and the bloggers too (Michael!), to sign up and play!
Joe, RMJ, protests are fine...but nothing happens without starting somewhere. I know I would love to see work from everyone, most especially from the scaredy-cats...they usually have the best stories to tell....
xoxo I love you guys to “death”
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/29 at 12:17 PMoops
i joined up but forgot to put expendable i the name. its in as michaelthetubthumper. should i do it again or just leave it as that? it won’t let me edit my username
Posted by michael on from scotland 10/29 at 12:39 PMMichael, I’d say we’re smart enough to add you the the friends list now that we know. The point isn’t to be all cutesy-poo and have the same name, just to be able to keep up with each other while the madness is in progress.
Others? A unified naming front, yea or nay?
“nuclear” hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/29 at 12:57 PMHi Mickey, JOS, Mudge and Michael -
Mickey & Mudge, I enjoyed each of your stories very much. Mudge - I agree with JOS, if you once again find one or more of the books, buy `em up! I completely understand what you were feeling, there, in The Book Stall - I have very similar feelings when looking back on joe’s life…
And thanks, by the way, for the “almost nuked” link. Mr. Petrov is a very courageous guy, fortunately. Had he been an American politician, the entire earth would now be barren and lifeless.JOS - I read your poem “I Remember Nothing,” a few days ago, then rushed out to take care of some business… Duh, I guess I could get a job as a troll in The Book Stall. Sorry, I enjoyed it, and all of your poetry, thusfar. Congratulations, James, on your award, and on your courage… You, sir, are an author. Please keep writing…
Michael, fun thumpings, today…
I’ve had very few hangovers but the last few, years ago, were considerably reduced with a few tugs from the pipe. ( Early “medical marijuana,” I guess...)Hey, guyz, last night I saw an amazing film called “Turtles Can Fly.” It’s about Kurdish refugee children living in Iraq, on the Turkish border, a few days before the 2003 US invasion.
It was a film of extraordinary power and depth. It begins with a punch to the gut, and never lets up… It may be the best film I’ve seen in the last year - perhaps 2… Please, everyone, rent it if you’ve the opportunity! You’ll never forget it.Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 02:26 PMHello Expendables. I just went out for bargain matinee of “A History of Violence.” This snippet from a Village Voice review does it justice: “Tense and atmospheric, with a real sense of animal menace, A History of Violence is a hyper-real version of an early-’50s B movie nightmare—albeit one where the narrative delicately blurs dream and reality, the performances slyly merge acting with role-playing, the location feels like a set, and blood always oozes from lovingly contrived prosthetic injuries. Each lie builds on another. Innocuous interaction is rife with hints to turbulent inner lives and violent fantasies. Innocent scenes are booby-trapped to explode on a second viewing. One child is shot; another wakes up screaming to be told by her father that ‘there’s no such thing as monsters.’”
Anyone see it yet?
Joe, I just looked up “Turtles” (http://tinyurl.com/blqov) and I’m sold. I just hope they have it in VHS at my video store. Otherwise, Michele and I are finally getting a DVD player. We’re just petrified about setting it out.
Mudge, I love the story. The closest I came to that situation was seeing a Disinfo anthology that contained an article of mine on the Barnes & Noble sale rack.
Michael: As I posted on your blog, I think you should submit your “dictionary” to Counterpunch.
JOS: Did you say you “are” excited about the Knicks?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 02:45 PMYes…
of course, I am an eternal optimist, so what do I know?
A friend of mine here in PR and I have been laughing about something our backup center Jerome James said about looking forward to playing against Shaq more often, someone more “his size.” We think he should more likely look forward to having an imprint of the word “Spalding” on his forehead…
But, some of this young guys might have some real potential as long as they listen to Larry Brown and learn something.
I’ll be back later on....
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 03:40 PMHi Mickey -
I’ve not seen the film, though I recently saw the trailer. I really like Viggo Mortensen, and any appearance by William Hurt is a significant bonus, in my book. It looks like a fine film. Your review clinches it.
And, to blab perhaps too much; I sure hope you’ll see Turtles. I’ve been unable to stop thinking of it since last night. The children were all actual refugees, and it was shot in “Kurdistan.” Everyone who champions war in any way should see this film, and everyone else should see it because it’s just so amazing! OK, I’ll shut up…
Thanks for the review, Mickey.JOS - The Knicks? They’ll just break your heart!
Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 03:42 PMJust to make clear, Joe, that wasn’t my review of “Violence.” However, I think it’s accurate. The film is very tense, very violent...but it conveys that feeling of how it easy it is to resort to violent means. William Hurt is excellent. Plus, Maria Bello is both a wonderful actor and a stunning woman.
The Knicks? Brown just may be enough to launch them into a first-round playoff defeat...but I’d have to see Marbury become a team player to believe it.
Kinda “cold” here in NYC today.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 03:51 PMProbably my favorite Turtles Can Fly movie review is here:
Please, everyone, SEE THIS MOVIE. Mickey, it’s worth getting the DVD player just to see Turtles, if you can’t find it on VHS.
Joe and I will be interested in hearing everyone’s thoughts on the movie after you see it.
Posted by suzanne on from 10/29 at 03:57 PMI’ve Netflixed Turtles Can Fly and it’s next in my queue.
Will report.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/29 at 04:25 PMHi Suzanne.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 04:33 PMYeah, Mickey - I remember first seeing her in “Payback,” a truly vicious film which I nevertheless liked a lot. Since then, we’ve seen her in Secret Window, Precinct 13, and The Cooler. She’s very good - and you’re right, she’s beautiful.
We’re watching a film, right now, called “Imagining Argentina,” with Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson. Interesting so far… about the “disappearing” of people in the 1980’s - we’ll see.Well, back to “work.” For us old folks, it never ends…
The Knicks: I didn’t know that Mr. Brown was now in NY. He’s a towering coach, though he seems tired, of late. I feel bad for him because I bet the Knicks will break his heart…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 05:21 PMIt will take a couple of years, but like I said, the Knicks have some young guys now with a lot of potential. Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, Trevor Ariza, and Jackie Butler are all guys that you never heard of, but are all under 22 and have A LOT of talent. As long as Eddy Curry stays healthy (also 22), we will have a great future.
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 05:45 PMMudge, glad to hear that “Turtles” is on your list. I’m wondering again, however, about the English language. When I taught English in Mexico City, people would ask: “Why is it you say -’Pair of Pants,’ but you do not say ‘Pair of Shirts,’ for your blouse?” or “Why do you put the letter ‘g’ in so many words, like dough and though?” or “Why do all your words with ‘q’ have to have a ‘u’ after the ‘q’? Isn’t ‘q’ a letter all on its own?”
Hey, there were lots of fascinating questions about our lingo. Here’s another:
How is it that queue
is pronounced:
Q. ?Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 07:27 PMJOS, when the Knicks picked up Ewing, back in the 1980’s, I thought, “OK, they’re on their way… they’ll build a great team around this guy, and we’re all over the Lakers.”
Then, JOS, once again -they broke my heart.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 07:29 PMJOS, Riley is from my hometown, so I hoped he’d kick ass, the way he did in LA. Had I been interviewed, I’d have said just what you did. I guess I would have been forgetting Jabbar and Magic, not to mention a tremendous supporting cast. Riley was great but, like Phil Jackson, he had also had some of the league’s greatest players to work with…
Gotta go, my Qat is in the litter box…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 08:31 PMJoe, I once got interviewed outside of Yankee Stadium after the Knicks hired Pat Riley and said that he was going to bring his winning ways to NY. I must have momentarily forgotten about that Michael Jordan guy.
My uncle once told me a good word to use while playing scrabble if you’ve got a Q and no U: Qat. It’s an african plant.
Posted by JOS on from Home 10/29 at 09:13 PMJOS - Pat Riley is from my hometown, so I also hoped he’d kick ass. Had I been interviewed, I’d have said what you did. I guess I would have been forgetting Jabbar and Magic - and a tremendous supporting cast. Riley was great but, like Phil Jackson, he had some of the greatest players in NBA history with whom to work…
Oops, gotta go. My Qat is in the litter box…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/29 at 09:36 PMWhoa, check out those posts…
I’m gonna go drop some acid and listen to Hendrix!Posted by joe on from a purple haze, far out, man! 10/29 at 09:49 PManother English borrow-word with no “u” after the “q” is ‘qum’ a desert type, borrowed from Arabian for geological and anthropological purposes. Of course, once global warming causes great swaths of the USA to desertify, I expect we’ll find it more useful.
Outfoxed, y’all. Rent it now.
Punkin’s getting antsy for Storytelling Saturday. Gotta go.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/29 at 11:35 PMShaw used to saw we could spell “fish” as “ghoti.” “gh” as in tough. “o” as in “women.” “ti” and in “action.” Ghoti = fish.
On that note, g’night all.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/29 at 11:40 PMThanks for sharing all those moments with us Mickey!
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 10/30 at 09:01 PMYou Pay For This, But They Give You That
Of course, the capitalists profess everything they do is for the the citizens when they pass all their operating costs off at public expense. And we are lead to believe our jobs contribute to society through employment and production.But one has to wonder why the public REPEATEDLY pays for the same products and services they’ve already paid for through research, factories, stores, and other tax write-offs - unless they’re mentally compromised? The public pays for capitalistic services, but never actually get them. Obviously, people can’t see enough to govern themselves.
The citizens eagerly provide the same taxes, labor and intellect for the capitalists as they do for the government - superficially, capitalists employment resembles cushy government jobs - but the social effect is exactly the opposite. Instead of working with harmonious social representatives, we now work for tyrants who privatize and monopolize EVERYTHING they can.
In spite of the public being responsible for the corporate plantations in every way, the slaves must labor in the ‘fields’ while corporate shareholders reap all the rewards. The endless rows of tobacco leaves and cotton may have been replaced by the asphalt jungle, but the slave system remains intact.
The capitalists have never been willing to share what we all make possible. Rather, after being funded by the public, the capitalists pretend they are responsible for everything - and claim everything as a result. As it turns out, they think everything is about them.
Capitalists Are Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
‘Privatizing public funds’ says it all: capitalistic “services” create tyrants and destroy society. It’s all about the private, expanding fortunes of the elite. Either capitalists are slick salesmen, or we’re just plain stupid. I think it’s a classic case of the blind leading the blind.Motive is everything. If you’re not a capitalist, you’re expected to act like one.
If you’re going to have equitable cheating - as in a den of thieves - then you need to strategically monopolize faster than others. Capitalists conspiracies accomplish this. Capitalists combine their will and resources to make an economic army, but they’re only recognized as one individual under the law. Conveniently enough, equating the rights of people and corporations has its limits - we individuals can’t pollute, poison, or kill without severe punishment. But the corporate entity seems to be exempt from this kind of justice. More often than not, that’s what happens when you police yourself. Corporations get to have their cake and eat it too.
This huge corporate entity initiates investments and secures proprietorship status. The art of greed requires one to be wealthy enough to make big investments and then wait for the tax cycle… to get it all back… and more! Who else could possibly monopolize and expand like wealthy people making their own laws? Capitalists had an end-game from the beginning.
If people asked you to pay their way, enabling them to sell you and others whatever they want, you’d probably wonder what drugs they were taking. Well, our government has made this capitalists pitch our bread and butter… It’s the law!
Capitalists get quietly reimbursed for “services.” The more they practice their philanthropy, the more they can charge the public for it. Here, social wealth and causes are quietly transformed into private ones - as the public gets billed by tyrants who seek to convert and control. All the services and products are just an excuse to privatize public funds.
The aim is large sustained returns. This is achieved by having other people pay their way. The faster capitalists can accomplish that, the larger their fortunes can be - by exploiting more people. Thus, the capitalists’ goal is to drain public resources and establish their “service” as a ‘private’ institution of society. The corporation is tailor-made to do this by using public giveaways to monopolize all social activity. Never mind there’s no social conscience accompanying their “good intentions.” The game of the rich is simply to covet all that they can.
continued at http://www.windowsfromthesky.com
Posted by Patriot on from SF, CA 11/02 at 08:41 PMMike,
Wow, Now that really brings back some memories. I was one of those fortunate kids to play with you back in the days of softball and football. You and I played with Joe’s pizzeria back then and all you said was true. You must have some memory because I have forgotten. Remember Sunday mornings when we would barely get 5 guys to play football at LIC. I beleive you played on Bobby’s team and I played with Chris, Henry, a few others and myself. We were the Vikings. One of the very first teams the YMCA created to play football. We wore these purple jerseys and we both played our hearts out. By the way, I still play softball in Queens and upstate where I now live. Some things never change. Mike, Thanks for the memories!
Posted by Dave Dorion on from Maspeth NY 09/05 at 10:34 AM
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