Writing, eating in restaurants, going to bars, staring at people, macaroni and cheese, cheeseburgers, beer, daydreaming, buckling my shoe at half past two, pulling my socks up, movies, chewing my lip, music, reading magazines, watching movies, talking on the phone, reading books and reading the odd writings on the wall.
Music
(In no particular order) Chuck Berry, The Handcuffs, Joan Jett, Va Voom, The Valley Downs, Graham Elvis, Das Damen, Cheap Trick, Firebug, Bloody Mess and the Transfusions, Sly and the Family Stone, The Faces, The Shangri-Las, Randy Newman, Porter Wagoner, Choking Susan, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Byrds, Elvis Costello, Slim Volume, Dusty Springfield, Shelby Lynne, The Temptations, Bob Dylan, Dwight Twilley, Traffic, Ronnie Lane, The Donnas, T.Rex, Lucinda Williams, Herman's Hermits, The Ramones, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Amy Winehouse, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Pretenders, Laura Nyro, The Joans, George Jones, Iggy and the Stooges, Randy Newman, Little Steven's Underground Garage on Sirius, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Cowsills, Susan Cowsill, Harry Nilsson, Queen, P.J. Harvey, The Beatles, The Raveonettes, Bondie, The Smithereens, Tammy Wynette, The Young Thomases, The Dave Clark 5, Simon and Garfunkel, Danny O'Keefe, NRBQ, Donovan, Concrete Blonde, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, The Supremes, The Monkees, Gonn, John Prine, The Rolling Stones (up to "Some Girls" should've retired after that), Jimi Hendrix, The Damned, Sonny and Cher, Liza and The Wonderwheels, The Larch, Baby Shakes, Long John Baldry, The Ronettes, Foo Fighters, The Beach Boys, Warren Zevon, The Kinks, The Muffs, William Shatner and Murray Wilson and more.
Movies
Glengarry Glen Ross, Welcome to the Dollhouse, The World's Fastest Indian, The Rutles, The Last Waltz, Resevoir Dogs, Cool Hand Luke, The Matador, Crumb, Rebel Without A Cause, Hud, American Beauty, 1000 Clowns, Bottle Rocket, Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, The Graduate, No Direction Home, Rock 'n' Roll High School, Blue Velvet, My Favorite Year, Animal House, Stripes, Spinal Tap, Being There, The Wild Angels, Groundhog Day, Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver, A Hard Day's Night, Swimming With Sharks, The Aristocrats, Fear Strikes Out, The Great Santini and more.
Television
NY1--weather on the ones. And infomercials where they vacuum pack things.
Books
Truth and Justice for Fun and Profit: Collected Reporting by Michael Heaton, Queen of the Oddballs by Hillary Carlip, 99 Beers Off the Wall, by ME, I'll Sleeo When I'm Dead by Crystal Zevon, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Spree by Pamela Klaffke, Honey West--This Girl For Hire by G.G. Fickling, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Peter Lawford--The Man Who Kept the Secrets by James Spada, Neighbors by Thomas Berger, All Amy Sedaris, All writings by David Dalton, Life is Ridiculous by Valerie Fausone, All Mark Twain, Papa John by John Philips, All Dr. Seuss, Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce, Everything by Joe Queenan, All David Sedaris writings, All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward and, yes that's right...MORE!
Heroes
Dawn Weiner and of course, Party Baby and Pary Baby Redux! And my hero...MICHAEL HEATON, the Minister of Culture at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
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About me: I'm a writer living in Manhattan. I moved to New York in the summer of 1993 and immediately started freelancing. I've written for the New York Post, Time Out New York, NY Press, Manhattan Spirit, Gadfly magazine, Nerve (the magazine that Legs McNeil edited, not that online thing), New York Newsday and Manhattan Mirror among others.
From 1993 to 2001 I was the editor, publisher and primary writer for a magazine called fishwrap. It was a magazine, that I liked to refer to as, a publication that bit the hands that wouldn't feed me. I started publishing the magazine after interviewing and then being rejected for a staff writing position at People, Entertainment Weekly and In Style. After sending out portfolios and feelers to other mainstream magazines and getting no response I decided since they wouldn't hire me, I would create a magazine that ridiculed their magazines, editors and writers. I often likened the magazine to a little kid throwing a tantrum. While the magazine was a critical and cult success, with positive reviews of the magazine written up in The New York Post, NY Daily News, Spin magazine, Men's Journal, Sassy, and USA Today, among others, I never made money due to the fact that I was rotten at selling advertising and I'm a horrible businessman. I folded the magazine in 2001. Four copies of fishwrap are posted below for your viewing pleasure.
In 2002 I wrote a book called, 99 Beers Off The Wall--A Crazed Guide and Twisted Travelogue of One Man's Journey to 99 Bars in New York City in Seven Days. The book was a satire of the Zagat's guide book and I visited and reviewed 99 bars and drank 99 beers in seven days off from my night job. ABC overnight news filmed a segment for the book, but it never got aired, due to lots of "real news" that summer. Oh well. Copies are still available.
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My new book, The Boy Who Would Be A Fire Truck--True Life Tales from a Working Class Writer, will be out in mid June, 2008. It's a collection of true life short stories. Plus it will include flip book movies and other surprises. Here's a link to my Lulu storefront:The Boy Who Would Be A Firetruck
It was time for "Anyway Girl" to reappear during the spring rains. Many people seem to hear it as a rain song. And I meant for it to be, I swears! My thanks to you, and not for the last time, for writing it with me.
Marty, go back to bed and start again. Sounds great to me, I could use a nap already today. I don't go out much, I admit it, so I need extra recovery time just to rest, not for having had too much fun, nope. I'm just going to hang out here in the bat cave today.
It's warm, too bright perhaps? HAA! I'm having a bite of lunch and working on art work. Hope you have a better day, still.
Greetings Marty! Glad you're back. I hope I'll have a nice time. I'm supposed to meet up w/this gal to go to this thing, but she's flaking out on me. Damn. I hate that. I'm still going, but what a drag. I can't find her phone number, and I've left a message already. I hate going alone, but I'll go ahead and do it, damn it. Oh well. I'll have a beer in your honor. FOAH
Parallel, that's for sure. We have both had a weird, strenuous, taxing couple weeks, to say the least... I am overdue for some relief myself and I'm sure you are too. I was so hesitant to talk about hospital and all, but I had to say something. It was so scary, and I'm sure you were too in your own case.
Marty, I've been focusing on relaxing and letting things go. It's not as hard as one might think. I've got myself some nice goals, no pressure expectations, and lots of warmth and love and that's all! HA! Today is a good day to relax, and not worry about bigger matters. Too beautiful a day to spoil with recent ancient history, because no one should feel like they have to "go there". That's up to you, Marty. Unless you want to, then I'm all ears! HA! Let's make a toast to smiles, and maybe just skip the heavy rehash of what happened. Save it for another night of drinks, laughter and tears, and that is that. The next day is then a new day. I like that methodology. It works. If you do write the blog, what is the statute of limitations with the po-lice? HA HA I find thinking of what will be, and being inspired by the present can be a real high. Yes, I'm sick of talking about me, but I can't wait to see the rest of you and the audience (HA!) whenever that is doing cool thing, hanging out w/me at my page. Enjoy the day. See you later. Xo Ms CosMod
hi, marty! i'm working on getting one of these to you. in the meantime, i hope you have a very afternoonly afternoon! your pal, biff
Dew Mod - The Ultimate Gaming Machine
If you like the idea of having a Mountain Dew dispenser built in to your PC, check out the Dew Mod. Tyler Carlton took apart an old soda system and crammed it into a custom built case. On the inside, you'll find an AMD Athlon 4800+ X2 processor, 2GB of OCZ Platinum DDR 3200, Dual GeForce 7800 GTXs, WD Raptor 75GB 10,000 RPM hard drive, and a LiteScribe DVD-RW.
