This part of AsLIC, from 37th Avenue and Crescent to maybe 40th Avenue and Vernon, this still feels like real New York. There are some tall buildings going up but nothing as offensive as the apocalyptic rise of uniformly ugly towers at Queens Plaza. The Boro Hotel is fucking ugly, but I don’t find the other hotels that popped up in the area to be too hideous. I walk around here sometimes after dark. A lot of auto body shops, auto repair, and places with the word “collision” in their names. Some places look like they have been here for decades, others look like the next occupant of spaces which are revolving doors of nondescript tire shops or oil change places.
When I had a car I took it to Central Collision, to get the driver’s side mirror replaced. It got torn off when an out of control Toyota Camry side swiped it and 2 or 3 other cars. I got damn lucky in that whole incident. It was a brand new Toyota Camry, but the driver said he’d been having weirdness with the steering. Apparently one of the axles just snapped. It was 3 or 4 in the morning but there was no alcohol involved. The police left insurance information on my windshield. As those things go it was handled as well as could be. I wanted to help the others whose cars were damaged but no one was interested.
A place called Big Griddle is new to me, but the space has been one of those revolving door type of locations. I went there one time when a bar-b-q place was its temporary resident, but never when it was the coffee shop that mis-spelled the word coffee on its awning. Coffe, anyone?
21st Street is a fabulous place for font hunting. Cemeteries are also rich with typefaces. I appreciate a good and bold font, but I’ve never studied the art enough to identify too many fonts by name.
I would like a keyboard that is able to change its font. On the physical keyboard, that is. It would also be fun if the letters could somehow rotate. This fancypants keyboard I use now appeared to be doing that the first few times I used it. Keys are very loose.
A lot of annoyances here at the library. A woman was giving a guided tour to a group of about 20 people, yelling shit like “I’m not going to take you over there” (pointing toward where I am) “because that’s the quiet area.” Freaking everybody can hear you, is what I want to say. Her tour ends and this dude sits across from me, sniffing. I guess he has a cold. Every 15-20 seconds I hear sniffing of snot. It is not melodious. Headphones to the rescue. Plex is here.
I picked a book at random from one of the shelves. It is a tawdry romance novel. I don’t think I’ve ever read such a book from start to finish, but chapters or excerpts here or there seem to have crossed my path. A friend in high school was reading one of these romances. It seemed strange at the time for a guy to be doing that, as the genre seemed to target women… or so I thought. But every now and again I would get a call from this person so he could share the next ludicrous line from this romance rag. There were plenty of those phone calls but the one I remember best was when a man says to a woman “Turn over. Give me your ass.” That command was followed by confusion and questions about anal sex, which the woman was not ready for. We laughed and laughed at that line, so awkward yet earnest: “Give me your ass.”
I opened to Chapter 5 of this book, which is called “Royal Bondage”. Tamara wakes up saying that she had done it. The deed was done. She turns to the man in bed and says “Husband, get me some breakfast.” He reacts with an understandable question: “Why did you call me ‘husband’?” She responds that she had been a virgin, and that in her tribe the first man you sleep with automatically becomes your husband. I don’t feel a need to read more of that. But going back to the end of the previous chapter reveals the predictable romance novel description of a stiff cock and the confusing feeling of penetrating a women for the first time.
Oh Christ now there is an absolutely SCREAMING baby. How does the myth that libraries are quiet places endure?
I had hoped to sit here longer and type the day away, but I need food. I forgot to eat. And I don’t want to catch this other guy’s cold, and become the sniff & snot sound machine that he is.
Listening to Sibelius’ First Symphony.
