Tao of Pauly

The Mondays

I'm getting old. It took me almost a week to recover from AlCanHang's Bashhouse drinkfest. And now I have less then twenty days before I hit the road. The next few weeks are going to be dedicated to staying sober, finishing up JTSMD, and watching the Yankees in the playoffs.

My brother gave me some money for an iTunes gift card for my birthday. I picked up the new album from the Black Keys called Black Potion and My Morning Jacket's epic Okononos. I can't stop listening to MMJ's new double live album which features a sizzling and knee knocking version of Mahgeeta. I dig the Black Keys but my biggest criticsm is that their sound is repetitve. Since they are made up of two musicans... a drummer and guitar player... there is no variety in their raw, bone crushing, thunderous sound.

I had a few bucks left over and I wandered over to the iTunes movies and TV section. The movie section is thin, which I'm sure will beef up in the upcoming months. I bought the pilot from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I don't even know what day it's on and missed the first couple of episodes. I wanted to see for myself what all the buzz was about. I've never seen one episode of The West Wing and all I knew about Sorkin was that he was a druggie who regularly ingests hash and shrooms. My kind of guy.

The pilot was good enough that I bought the second episode. I dig what I've seen so far. I don't watch much TV anymore, aside from sports/poker and The OC. Oh and special HBO series like Sopranos or Entourage. But aside from an occasional Simpsons or Seinfeld episode, I don't watch TV unless I'm flying on JetBlue and have five hours to kill soaring over the country. Then it's usually the Food Network. Ah, food porn.

My trip to the bagel store on Sunday would have tested the patience of a Buddhist monk. I arrived at five minutes until noon, which was peak rush hour. Church just let out and the store was packed. I made the mistake of doing my one good deed of the day. I held the front door open for an old lady and let her go in first. Big mistake. I ended up waiting ten minutes for my Everything bagel. The old broad in front of me ordered almost $80 worth of spreads, lox, and bagels and I wanted to head butt her everytime she changed her order and made the poor Ecuadorian girl run back and re-do her order. And then the knucklehead yuppie in front of her had four complicated coffee orders which would have confused the most experienced baristas in Seattle. They need an express line for simple orders, but that will never happen because abrasive New Yorkers would find someway to abuse that system.

I've been taking notes for a new subway story for Truckin'. A bum with a big black garbage bag (which by the way happens to be the standard issue for every homeless guy in the city who happens to be wearing the same pair of sneakers four sizes too big and a ratty winter coat, even in the middle of the summer) sat down next to me last week. On my right was a guy in a tuxedo. And as the Rooster guessed... the guy in the tux was black and the homeless guy was white.

One morning I experienced one of those type-A working moms drag her two young kids onto the subway during morning rush hour. She whizzed through her Palm pilot as the youngest kid struggled to put her pink socks on. They were running late and the girl threw on her sneakers without socks. Her mother scolded her as she struggled. The other daughter carefully did her math homework as I sat in silence.

Then there's the drunk Columbia girls with the $300 shoes... but I'll save that for Truckin'.