Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Saturday, December 02, 2006

He fixed televisions for a living

Posted by Mickey Z on 12/02 at 07:30 AM
  1. Nice story Mickey. I really enjoy story telling Saturdays. It reminds me of my teenage years. We were so juiced up with raging hormones that we took great risks just to get a shot at some girl. AH… The good old days.

    Peace everyone!

    Posted by David  on  from Louisville KY 12/02  at  08:00 AM
  2. Hello my fellow Expendables. It’s sunny, cool, crisp December Saturday in NYC. Time to get out and enjoy it.

    David: I’m glad you like my Saturday stories. It’s a weekly chance to ditch the hardcore political stuff and go off on a tangent.

    We used to get 10-15 additional stories posted here on Saturdays but it’s an odd paradox that traffic is a strong as it’s ever been but comments are down.

    Posted by Mickey Z.  on  from Astoria 12/02  at  12:27 PM
  3. Great review, Mickey.  Morning David…

    I’ve got one I posted on my blog about a month ago...it happened over 10 years ago when I was young and crazy:

    Washington Heights, Saturday Night, 3:17 AM

    I’m traveling in the passenger seat of Big Daddy Love’s all-white, beat-up, work van. The back is filled with a jumble of items any contractor might have. The streets are lively. The beginning of a crowd is gathering just north of us...the direction we are traveling...in the side street to the east. Just as we are passing gunfire explodes to our right. I look and see a half-naked man crash through a second floor window and disappear below street level onto what must have been some stairs leading down to a basement. Big Daddy Love pulls over, of course, and we get out to see what is going on. This is a Dominican neighborhood and as we walk through the crowd we are able to piece together the story, in both English and Spanish, that a local man was being held hostage by a Jamaican in a drug deal gone bad. The police arrive along with an ambulance as the local man has somehow survived being shot in the back as he ran for the window. The crowd has greatly increased in size and people are yelling at the police to go get the Jamaican up in the apartment building. Try to imagine the moments before an all out riot. Now here come 5 cops surrounding a black man with perfect corn-rowed hair, shirtless, powerfully muscled, with his wrists hand-cuffed behind his back. The crowd moves in throwing bottles and debris at the police and the man. The man is yelling something fierce at the crowd and then bull rushes forward. Amazingly, the crowd parts and backs away from the man. He continues to scream and charge anyone near him until the police grab him up again and get him into the back of a cruiser. The crowd is completely out of control at this point. The police are running for their lives. More bottles are thrown smashing against the roof of the police cars as they finally escape through the crowd. My friend and I get back into the van and continue our tour of New York City’s real nightlife.

    Posted by JOS  on  from Chicago 12/02  at  01:02 PM
  4. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Big Country JOS is in the house.

    Posted by Mickey Z.  on  from Astoria 12/02  at  01:06 PM
  5. Hey everyone, maybe next week, maybe next week, a story from me, I know I’ve been saying that for years now… but in the meantime, maybe JOS could hit us up with the story about why he’s also known as Commando JOS? I forget the details about that one. Something about his militant nature?

    Posted by James  on  from Hell's Kitchen 12/02  at  01:13 PM
  6. that’s the one where I rarely wear underwear, and when I do, it is usually something unusual.

    Posted by JOS  on  from Chicago 12/02  at  01:25 PM
  7. Dude, that story was a little… anti-climactic. Which might be for the best, all things considered. Anyway, Star Wars is finally helping me out, at least with relationship advice:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg4PY_lsw_k

    I think I have a crush on the female Sand Person…

    Posted by James  on  from Hell's Kitchen 12/02  at  01:47 PM
  8. how’s your Sartre group going?

    OK...here’s another story/poem:

    there are places
    up in northern Ontario
    huge swaths of land
    untouched by modern man

    I’ve been to them
    canoed the lakes and rivers
    portaged the rugged trails
    I’ve drank from the cold waters

    absolute beauty

    I have never hunted
    never killed an animal on purpose
    but up there
    one develops a hunger

    it’s a reawakening
    of an ancient urge

    my body was muscled
    lean
    from constant movement
    paddling
    carrying
    from sunrise to sunset

    our food was canned
    and cooked over open flames
    made delicious by hunger

    I went exploring one afternoon
    with our group’s leader
    through the woods
    and came upon a grouse

    an ugly creature
    pretty much flightless
    kind of like a dark feathered
    chicken/turkey hybrid

    I was tossed a large stick
    and we snuck towards
    the animal
    as silently as we could

    off it went
    running and flapping
    making leaps
    and we leapt after it

    finally we caught up
    and I had the perfect
    shot
    I wound back my arm
    ready to whip my stick
    and break its skinny neck

    but at the last second
    a doubt appeared
    a hesitation
    an aversion to killing
    and that was enough
    to send that stick sailing wide
    and the grouse disappeared
    into the brush

    I guess civilization
    has confiscated
    my killer instinct

    Posted by JOS  on  from Chicago 12/02  at  02:07 PM
  9. I’m still absorbing that poem; bravo so far… so much to read, man-- book club meeting tomorrow here, and it’s looking bigger than Jesus right now:
    http://bookclub.meetup.com/600/

    Also, I’m fixated on the pure genius of Phil Hartman:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmKi0-Hr27I

    ...is that poem a true story?

    Posted by James  on  from Hell's Kitchen 12/02  at  02:19 PM
  10. No time to check the You Tube links yet but I love the poem, JOS...and Cat Lady: Bravo. You created that book club and it’s hopping now.

    I’ll be back soon…

    Posted by Mickey Z.  on  from Astoria 12/02  at  02:51 PM
  11. Thanks man-- a bit of a slow start, goals and expecations still often vague, but that’s the way of things sometimes… gonna need more chairs here tomorrow in any case.

    Posted by James  on  from Hell's Kitchen 12/02  at  03:09 PM
  12. 100% true...why, is it so unbelievable?

    Love the Sinatra video.

    Posted by JOS  on  from I used to be a New Yorker 12/02  at  03:18 PM
  13. Thanks Mick…

    40 people, James?  Nice going…

    looks like your book club has attracted several dark, brooding, intellectual women.

    Posted by JOS  on  from I used to be a New Yorker 12/02  at  03:20 PM
  14. So many classic lines in that one, where do you start? Chunks of guys like you…

    Posted by James  on  from Hell's Kitchen 12/02  at  03:21 PM
  15. Simultyping, JOS… lately it seems like, is there any other kind? As to how many of them actually show up, another question…

    Posted by James  on  from Hell's Kitchen 12/02  at  03:45 PM
  16. Hey M.,

    I think I just saw you for a sec on Youtube, the modern day robin hood clip?

    Here it is: 
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl7sV98QgfE&NR
    I believe you say: 4 dollars.

    Am I just hallucinating?

    That book club thing sounds intriguing…

    Posted by Christine Hamm  on  from not in my backyard 12/02  at  04:24 PM
  17. Christine: While the odds of you hallucinating are always high, yes, that was yours truly...caught in the middle of the Robin Hood madness.

    Posted by Mickey Z.  on  from Astoria 12/02  at  06:13 PM
  18. MZ book review: another toothless establishment guy reinin’’em in: “Because of ideological biases, which give violent protests a stature they do not deserve...” I wonder, does invading another country count as violent protest? How about lynching? To be fair, Cohen didn’t specifically bash the idea of not trusting govt - sorta gave it a finesse pass; that’s what 200 years of Maytag on the medulla gets you. But the real hook is “useful material.” ("Holy Talk Shows, Batman!” “Pass the batphone, Robin. There isn’t a minute to waste.")

    “I don’t need no stinkin’ ideas,” said the intrepid politico, “Just twenty minutes of shiny boilerplate before we break for lunch.”

    I can’t see. Cut me, Mick.
    Zen Prole

    P.S. Will try to get my syntax together for next week’s story posts.

    Posted by Zen Prole  on  from Urth 12/02  at  09:20 PM
  19. Funny you should throw in a Rocky reference, Zen. Mr. Stallone will be mentioned here tomorrow.

    Btw, my friend, I’d say you have the line of the day: That’s what 200 years of Maytag on the medulla gets you.

    Really glad you’ve made this a regular stop…

    Posted by Mickey Z.  on  from Astoria 12/02  at  09:52 PM

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