Eric on Church and COTS Walk

Early Sunday, I found him on Church Street. “Where did you sleep last night?” “I got wasted and woke up on the bike path.”

I gave him a dollar. “Now, you are talking my language,” he said. “Are you a capitalist,” I asked? “I would be if Obama wasn’t President.”

Michael and I did the COTS (committee for temporary shelter). We were sponsors on Lorna’s team.

Along the way, we met Duckie and his friend, just sitting.

Strong Sunday.

Lorna danced behind the drums which led the demonstration. Her daughter works for COTS, a group helping homeless.

Andrew’s Out

Not that he didn’t know. But taking up with the girl you met in rehab can only bring tsouris. Sure enough, he ended up at the 4C’s for the last three months. “Every cloud has a silver lining. I would have frozed to death or overdosed if I had been out.” “Jails should protect us from you, not you to yourself,” I said to a deaf ear.

Now he needs a job to pay for a program, a DV program, not the drug program he needs. No contact with a public defender for three months until she communicated a plea offer which he took, despite not being guilty, in order to get out of jail. SOS, suspended sentence, probation, costs, blah, blah, blah. Not sure I listen to these stories anymore. “If I were in IDAP, they would pay for it; DOC program.” “Don’t you need a felony to qualify for that?” I asked feigning a lack of knowledge. “Not sure,” he said.

Andrew will go back to jail and max out if he doesn’t get a job, stay out of trouble and attend programming for 26 weeks ($35 a wk). He cannot go to the Dept. of Labor, because he has child support payments which are in arrears. Who will hire him? At what wage? Let’s see. $10 an hour. 40 hours a week. $400. Taxes and social security. $270. $35 for programming. $225. Where does he live? $275 a week at a motel. You see what I mean. No way.

The woman has left town. Andrew will lie his way through the program, assuming he goes and is not kicked out. Anger will spew from his mouth against her, directly, and women indirectly.

In denial, another case awaits, a felony. Who will be next?

Blood Simple Again

In preparation for the Academy Awards, we went back to the Coen brothers first flick, Blood Simple. No question. It still works as well as any number of times I have seen it. That means that despite knowing what would happen, I still had a visceral reaction, maybe not as shocking as the first time (even good sex cannot live up to the first time), but still impressive. Continue reading “Blood Simple Again”

Charles Lloyd at the Flynn





Very nice Sunday afternoon at the Tarant Gallery. Premium show before the concert. Listened to Charles Lloyd with a commentary from VPR Jazz broadcaster George Thomas. Unfortunately, I had to leave to return home to turn off the split pea soup I had put on the stove before I left. Tres stupid. People brought vinyl Lps which they passed around. Not that I needed an excuse to stay out of the cold, but this was as good a place to be as any, assuming you had to go out.