Richard’s Neighborhood

"Housewife" - Jay Brannon. You heard right, he wants to be a housewife to another man.

"Time will" - Hercules and the Love Affair. Gay singer/song writer Antony Hegarty fronts the band.

"Attack Of The 60 Foot Lesbian Octopus" - Does It Offend You, Yeah? (that's the name of the group and me not being a smart-ass).

"Everything You Do is a Balloon" - Boards of Canada.

Rough hands.  Duct tape.  Pain in my arms, bound at the elbows.  The back of an old van.  Tony and his playmate laughing, making crude jokes.  Two more thugs, whoever brought the van, taking orders and lifting bodies.  "Nah, cops are cool," a voice says.  "We'll open tomorrow, nobody'll ever know this happened."  A flashlight in my eyes.  "Well, good evening, cupcake," Vento snickers.  "I guess we didn't hit you hard enough the first time."

     "We're going for a ride, fucko," says his partner, and his boots sing me a lullaby.

It dawned on me slowly that liquid was hitting me in the face, and my first thought was that somebody was pissing on my head.  Nope; it was just water.  I blinked my eyes, shook my head.  Tested my bonds; they were tight.  We were in somebody's rec room.  There was a bar in here, a pool table…I craned my neck around and saw a poker table.

     Tony Vento moved on down the line with the seltzer bottle and sprayed us all awake.  All four of us were lined up, taped to metal folding chairs.  We were all beaten up to various degrees.  Gus, the fiercest fighter among us, looked like he'd gone a few rounds with a grizzly; his face was a solid sheen of blood.

     Vento stepped back, admiring his work, and set the seltzer bottle on the bar.  He leaned back against the bar and crossed his legs.  "Somebody wants to talk to you fuckin' morons," he said, pointing at us each in turn.

     Jackie coughed his lifetime chain-smokers cough, exacerbated by his twin beatings.  "Yeah," he grunted.  "I'm sort of wanting to talk to him, too."

     A noise behind us: the groan of a heavy foot on a staircase, a big guy coming down slow.  We all knew who it was…except for Dave, maybe.  Or maybe him, too; you could only be so dumb.  "Here's your chance," grumbled a voice, coming low and patient across the room.  "I'm all ears."

     The vibe in the rec room got noticeably more dangerous.  Sweat prickled in my armpits and my shorts.  There was the sound of a lighter flipping open and flicking to life, a heavy inhale, the scent of cigar smoke and then Paulo Benedetto cruised slowly into view.  His gut appeared first, draped with a blue silk shirt, then his hairy muscular arms, the shortish legs in mustard yellow silk, then finally the face: impassive eyes, heavy bags which melted into pockmarked cheeks, thick lips wrapped around the cigar like a pacifier, the whole thing capped by a solid upsweep of impeccable gray hair like a stainless steel iceberg.  Benedetto stopped about five feet from us and just stood and smoked while we kept smart and played dumb.  After a good 30 seconds of heavy breathing, he removed his cigar with a single curled finger.  "What happened?" he asked, no more intensely than he would make an espresso order.  Paulo Benedetto had learned that the way to survive in this business was to never let anybody see you lose your shit.

     "We didn't heist the Family Bowl," said Jackie, his mouth still leaking blood.

     "What were you doing there?  Working for Lino?"

     Jackie shook his head.  "Nah, it was an independent job.  Lino doesn't know a thing about it."

     "What were you doing there?"  Benedetto repeated.

     "It was…"  Jackie sighed with exasperation.  "It was just a convenient landmark, someplace we could all meet up before going to the job."

     Vento stepped away from the bar.  "So you decided, hey, as long as we're here, let's rob the fuckin' place!"  Benedetto slowly swiveled to regard Vento, and his look pinned his subordinate back to the bar.

     "I'm not stupid," Jackie continued.  "I know the Family Bowl is your turf…I know that whole neighborhood is your territory…we were just supposed to meet there and move on."

     "Then what happened?"

     "I showed up early, to wait for Gus and the guys—"  He tossed his head in our direction.  "I saw the doors smashed."  He sighed.  "I should have just peeled out of there, called the guys and had them clear off, but…"

     "Jackie Joyce the do-gooder," Benedetto said with a slight sneer.  It was an amused sneer, maybe.  It was hard to tell with him.

     "I just decided to peek in, see if I could help, I guess, I don't know…do you always know why you do something?"  Benedetto's face was impassive.  "Anyway, there were maybe three guys in there, tearing the place apart.  They were just finishing up, and when one of them spotted me coming in, he just came at me.  I tried to hold my own, but they were all, like, 30 years younger than me.  They ate me alive.  Next thing I remember, these guys are shaking me awake."

     "Then you showed up," I said to Tony.  He made a face at me.

     Benedetto frowned and puffed on his cigar for a bit.  "So, you're saying…this is all one big misunderstanding?"  Jackie nodded.  "What was the real job you were meeting up for?"

     "It was purely personal," Jackie said.  "Nothing professional, nothing that would have upset the apple cart."

     "What was it?"

     Jackie's mouth made a grim line.  "I can't tell you…just trust me on this.  You know my rep, Mr. Benedetto."

     Jackie and Benedetto stared at each other for a long time.  Finally, the big man said, "You guys sit here and marinate.  I need to think about some things."  To Vento: "Keep them cozy.  Get them a drink."  Then, just as slowly as he had come into view, he took his leave of us.  His footsteps groaned heavily on the stair, and he was gone.

     It was just Vento now, looking at us like he could hardly stand to be sharing a room.

     "Ahem," Gus said.  "I would just love a damp towel and a whiskey," he said.  His grin cut Cheshire-like through the bloody mask of his face.

I just got my sweet ass stella scooter

Stella!!!

I  am excited about the Olympics for sure.You can't get away from coverage of the opening ceremonies(which are tonight).

Ancient Prophecies IV - Mayan Calendar

On the radio yesterday, I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger playing word games involving the livelihoods of state employees in California.  As the economy tanks, the Governator is looking for ways to save money that don't involve raising taxes.  His solution: cut the salaries of state employees.  In some cases, lowering wages to $6.55/hour, the federally mandated minimum wage.

Help me, here, because I don't quite understand how this is different from a tax.  If you tax me, you take money out of my paycheck.  If you cut my salary, you take money out of my paycheck.  What's the diff?

Oh, right, the difference is that in this scenario, which Schwarzie claims will save the state $1.2 billion per month, the only people being taxed are state employees.  Everybody else gets a free ride, including the governor, who gets to claim he hasn't raised taxes. 

$6.55 an hour.  Think about that one.  I don't know how much money you make, but I don't make a lot.  Hubbicula laughed when he saw our tax return from last year.  Still, $6.55 an hour is less than half what I make as a humble state employee.  At $6.55 an hour, I wouldn't be able to pay my bills, let alone pay my mortgage, or keep the kittens in kibble.  Never mind keeping Hubbicula in college.

Before you even start on state employees, I'll say it for you: we're lazy, incompetent, indifferent, reckless, and greedy.  Fine, agreed.  The only question is: do you want my job?  No, I didn't think so.  We state employees may be the bottom of the barrel, but we were willing to take the jobs nobody else wanted.  No matter how grudgingly and slowly, we provide important services.  Without us, your kids don't get educated, your paperwork doesn't get pushed, and your highway medians don't get mowed.  We guard you while you sleep. Do not... fuck with us.

J'ai éclaté de rire, parce qu'avant, ça m'arrivait si souvent :)

Mais plus maintenant :)

To Do List

J'ai bien progressé sur le "ici et maintenant" :D

Trouvé sur le blog des paresseuses, bien sûr.