You’ll have to forgive me today, because oy: work, and obligations. I am responsible for a wedding compilation video, and that took up a chunk of the evening. I was told just to take all the pictures and dump ‘em in and don’t bother about the chronology, but duty and honor require that I straighten and crop and manage the order of things, so the baby-on-a-bearskin doesn’t pop up in the middle of the graduation ceremony. But that’s done. Happy to do it.

There’s a column to write, and I might do it about getting the car fixed, but y’know, yawn. And if I think yawn now that means there’s no seed I can water. No hook. Doesn’t mean I couldn’t do it, but it might just be apparent I’m blowing up a latex glove and trying to pass it off as a hot-air balloon, if you know what you mean, and if you do, please tell me because I’m not sure.

Annnnnd had a chat with the Ex tonight; I had sent a letter about some remaining bills, and she wanted to clear up a few things but also chat, and I don’t really want to chat. The premium tier content is not available at your subscriber level.

I mean, there's the daily stuff of life to chat about, the way I've regretted every towel-hue / design purchase I made in advance and how I've finally given the needlessly large extra bathroom the two-hue towel solution it needs, because they echo the colors of the Suffolk travel posters, but on the other hand, remember that pier we all visited in Southwold, and had a fun outing? Go jump off it.

So let’s hit the misc folder and see if there’s anything I saved . . . ah! Well, I was going through some 1922 Architectural Records. Why? It began as a search for the 1922 John Hancock building in Boston, and I ended up snipping all sorts of interesting things. This apartment building was surprisingly . . . severe.

The windows are great, though.

Trees fix many things.

 

 

Probably goes for a pile today.

Still a bit severe. They put an addition on the back.

 

 

You'll see a lot of this in some future Hiatus. The difference between the pages of 1922 and 1932 is remarkable. The whole world changed.

Ah, half-price carts! I took some half-price pictures to celebrate the sad, callous end of some unpopular products.

 

     
 

Summer's done

Those are expensive towels. You wouldn't even use them.

You'd hang them on the oven door, but you wouldn't use them.

 

 

    
  Just because the stuff is red white and blue doesn't mean it has to go, does it?

 

 

    
 

Novelty desserts.

These are hot dogs. Their value dropped instantly when the 4th was over. No one wants a hot dog cookie on the 5th

NO ONE
     
     
  These were also half-price. I bought box! Serving size: two. Pure sugar. Sugar cookie with sugar frosting with festive sprinkles (sugar). They're soft, at least this week. Next week, stiffness will begin to afflict the frosting. I'll never get through them all.

 

There was also some chipotle hickory salt, but it was clumped, because it did not use an anti-caking agent. It reminded me that I'm indiffierent to chipotle. I think we all are. I mean, it's . . . fine? But it's the kiwi fruit of smoky flavors.

See what I mean? I got nuthin'. Bupkis.

 

 

 

 

  
   

 

 

I was playing Agent Cooper in a staged version of Twin Peaks - the Return, except it had the tone of the first and second season, with coffee and pie and Coop walking around thinking. I didn’t know any of my lines. I hadn’t practiced anything and now it was opening night, and I had to go out there and improvise the whole show. I figured it wouldn't be a problem because I knew Twin Peaks very well, but it was absolutely horrifying. Basically, I was trying to play Agent Cooper as Dougie, his confused and conversationally inert doppelganger. I kept looking for the script and I couldn’t find it. I had to make up a scene at the beginning about finding a dead body, and I could tell that nobody in the cast could figure out what was going on, because I was waxing rhapsodic about the impermanence of flesh, particularly in Texas. (I thought that line was clever, but it didn;t land.)

Next there was a diner scene, where seemingly everybody in the play was there, but instead of being a counter or in booths, it was if we were around old wooden tables they’ve taken from a school. The person who was sitting next to me, going through papers seemed particularly disgusted with me, but I didn’t know if that was his personality or a common performance. He probably would’ve said something. The scene began, and they looked at me; I said "what's my line" and someone said "Yes" and I said "Yes" and everyone laughed.

After the scene I was confronted by an old editor. She seemed drunk and had scaly teeth, and she told me that I didn’t have the right to pull over anybody because I didn’t like the way they were driving. I said I hadn’t done anything like that at all, and was surprised because I thought she was coming up to me to talk about the play, but she said that there had been a story in the paper about somebody who pulled over somebody because they didn’t like how they were driving and I didn’t have that right. I had to tell her it wasn’t me, she said that the photo looked like it was.

 

 

 

 

The tragic unsuccessful followup to a massive hit:

 
 

To be fair, it was the second follow-up.

To everyone's surprise, they were not from Baltimore.

Baltimora was an Italian music project from Milan, active from 1984 to 1987. They are best known for their 1985 single "Tarzan Boy" and are often considered a one-hit wonder in the United Kingdom and the United States. In other European countries, including their native Italy, Baltimora scored a follow-up hit "Woody Boogie" the same year.

Not to say there wasn't any connection.

McShane and Bassi chose the name Baltimora when, one evening together, McShane took a map of the United States, closed his eyes and happened to place his finger on Baltimore.They changed the final letter to an 'a' to make the name more in keeping with the act's Italian roots.

A great high-80s song, Tarzan Boy. You had to be there.You were?

Fun, wasn't it? All things considered, wasn't it fun?

 

That will do1 Lucre awaits. Just one, so I can do the front-and-back of the same bill next week. Have a great weekend, and we'll be back on Monday for more of the same, except different.