Crazy Fingers

Check this out. It’s a way of getting around the voice response system at many of the companies you’re likely to call. You may still end up talking to someone in India, but at least you can avoid the annoying voice prompts.

Check out Paul’s description of his experience trying to join a gym.

I love this poster. I’ve got it hanging in my apartment.

You can get it here.

Each day, try doing three of the things mentioned in the poster and watch how your world changes.

Michael Alexander has posted comments soliciting dirt about Corey, Oliver and Rocco’s behavior in the shower and steamroom at the gym. I have nothing to say about that. As far as I can tell, they don’t shower at the gym, I’ve never even seen Rocco in a gym, and I don’t go to that gym anymore.

Oliver has mentioned the steamroom in his blog (well, more precisely, he mentioned the guy who’s suing the gym because of what he saw there). Rocco has mentioned it. This other random blog mentions it, too. (They’re even talking about it in San Francisco!) But I’ve never seen any of them in there.

I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated with these three guys and their blogs. Maybe it’s because I see them around The Shire frequently, and reading their blogs I can pretend I’m like friends with them or something.

I’ve met them all in real life.

I met Oliver first, in August of 2004, when I was in Provincetown deciding to break up with my ex. Oliver was sitting on the porch outside Symbology. I drove by blasting Going Down The Road Feeling Bad from one of the Dick’s Picks (I forget which one) and when I walked back past the porch, he stopped to ask me if it was me playing the Dead. He’s probably sorry he did that. Now I accost him and try to talk about the Dead, or the show I’m currently listening to, but he doesn’t seem all that interested. Maybe it’s because he thinks I’m on drugs. I’m not. I even sent him some Ain’t No Time To Hate stickers, which he didn’t seem to appreciate.

Then, after I broke up with my ex, I met Rocco at the Eagle, and tried, unsuccessfully, to hook up with him. “He was quarterback at Villanova,” someone told me. “He’s crazy,” someone else whispered. “He fucked me in the bathroom,” a third person claimed. In retrospect, he’s not all that hot and he’s not my type.

I met Corey through my friend Kevin. I have no idea how he came up in conversation, and I don’t remember how I found his blog, but yeah, I’ve been stalking him ever since. I really like his relationship with Rocco. It’s sweet.

In 1991 there was a conversation on The WeLL about gay deadheads. The conversation came around to perceived homophobia, or lack of welcome, at Dead shows, and what we might do about it. In true deadhead fashion, we decided to print stickers and give them away.

The stickers were the Grateful Dead’s Steel-Your-Face logo, with a pink triangle replacing the lightening bolt, and the words “Ain’t No Time To Hate” running around the outside. (I still have thousands of these stickers in my apartment. Maybe I’ll scan one some day so you can see what they looked like. If you want some, drop me a line.)

We printed tens-of-thousands of the stickers, and I personally handed out thousands. It was amazing to walk around the parking lot of a show, or circulate inside a venue, just giving something away. I got to meet and talk to many cool people. Almost everybody accepted the sticker with a smile and I can’t recall any negative reaction because of what the stickers stood for. People would slap the stickers on their shirts or jackets, and after a while it seemed like everyone who passed by was wearing one. I imagine many intermission or post-show conversations about “what does this mean” and kids putting it together that it’s ok to be gay or that it’s in keeping with the deadhead community to welcome brothers and sisters with all kinds of sexual orientations. (Being a deadhead used to mean being part of a big, welcoming community, which is what attracted me in the first place, I think. Giving stuff away, randomly, was a community-building activity. It was not uncommon for someone to affix supermarket produce stickers on random strangers, for example. Our Ain’t No Time To Hate stickers fit perfect into that tradition.)

In fact, a few years ago, way before I met Brian, I randomly encountered a young man on craigslist who told me that seeing our message on a tshirt (someone — David Gans, perhaps — had tshirts made at some point) inspired him to come out. He told me that before he knew that I had anything to do with the stickers.

So anyway, it came to pass that in 1992 Idaho and Colorado had anti-gay initiatives on their ballots. These initiatives would have rolled back existing equal-protection legistlation or made such legislation unconstitutional in the state. The Dead were scheduled to play in Denver after the voters of Colorado approved their anti-gay amendment. On the WeLL, we discussed a boycott, and decided against it (it would only hurt people in Colorado who probably voted in our favor). Instead, we got together — hundreds of us — and raised the money to put up a billboard outside the arena in which the Dead were playing.

We did this with the Dead’s permission. Jerry Garcia, in an interview on MTV around that time, indicated that he knew about, and supported, what we were trying to do. It got front page coverage in the local media in Colorado. David Gans described the stickers and the billboard in an interview.

Ultimately, of course, Colorado’s Amendment 2 was overturned, just as the billboard suggested — with the help of one of George Bush’s Supreme Court nominees. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts’ surprising pro-bono work in favor of overturning it. I grabbed the image from ABC News, which used it as a backdrop for the story about Roberts’ pro-bono work. I was thrilled that Brian saw the story, noticed the image, and told me about it, before he knew the details of the stickers. He recognized the steelie because of my tattoo.

Corey’s mention of this blog caused over 80 people so far to come check it out.

My biggest source of hits remains my ex’s avatar, which he uses for his discussions on Greasy Lake. I’m not sure why I still host this for him, but I guess I don’t want my karma to be totally trashed. I don’t know if he realizes that my raw access logs give me a total snapshot of how he’s wasting spending his time. At least he had the courtesy not to stalk me on The Well.

Aside from people looking for the steelie tattoos and pictures of golden retrievers and cars crashing into houses (I used to have pictures of a car that overturned in my front yard, when I lived in West Orange, NJ; maybe I’ll post them here some day), most of my hits come from people looking for the lyrics to “Hippy from Olema,” which I posted on the blog in one of its earlier incarnations.

I resurrected that old entry from the Google Archive, but the old permalink is gone, so people who get my blog as the first hit in Google for “hippy from olema lyrics” may be disappointed until Google picks up the new permalink.

I’m watching Brian do a simulation on his outfit. We’re supposed to be somewhere right now. We’re late. He wants me to apply for the job at Prada. More later about Thanksgiving, and why Starbucks may not be a viable alternative if I lose my job. We’re running out the door.

First post from Brian’s apartment. I’m watching him try on the sixth sweater. I think we finally have something that he thinks looks ok. But so did the other five. We were supposed to watch the parade from his friend Steven’s father’s apartment on Central Park West, but I think we’re going to miss most of it. We’re looking at the turkey on television right now. Brian loves the turkey.

After Steven’s father’s apartment, we’re heading to Massapequa for dinner at Brian’s cousin Cheryl’s house, which involves driving his brother Craig and his mom out there (remember, I got the car detailed last week for Brian’s mom), then we’re coming back to the city for dessert with Brian’s Aunt Lynn. Cheryl is mom’s family. Lynn is dad’s family. They’re divorced. I’ve already met mom’s family, at Rosh Hashana. This is my introduction to dad’s family, including dad’s girlfriend, who is younger than me. (Brian and I are separated by the same number of years as dad and Alice, but that doesn’t innoculate Brian from comments about my age.)

I think we’re finally ready to leave. Brian is dressed, but now he’s cleaning gum out of the carpet, which I allegedly brought in on my shoes. Thank God for scotchguard.

Ok, time to go. Brian is finally ready. Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, it’s true. Archive.org removed the Grateful Dead archive. I guess I’m done downloading 20 shows a day.

My friend David Gans posted his perspective. I’m bummed, of course, but I don’t feel the sense of entitlement David talks about. It is their property, after all. I guess I’ll go back to one-on-one trading. (If you’re interested, you know where to reach me. I’ve got over 600 shows in 128kb mp3 format.)

Maybe I’ll start downloading some Allman Brothers.

In a comment, Bonnie asked what coos-ach-ta means.

It means “your sister’s cunt” in arabic. Here are some other useful arabic curses.

(Bonnie’s blog is better than mine. Read it.)

My ex is a pussy and won’t post comments on the blog.

[12:18] peter07043: happy thanksgiving
[12:18] Larry07052: you goo
[12:18] Larry07052: err, too
[12:18] peter07043: u going to your brothers?
[12:18] Larry07052: no
[12:18] Larry07052: they’re going to aruba
[12:18] peter07043: where u going?
[12:20] Larry07052: we’re going to brian’s friend to watch the parade from his apartment on CPW
[12:20] Larry07052: then to his cousin in massapequa on LI
[12:20] Larry07052: then to his aunt in the city
[12:20] Larry07052: what are you doing?
[12:21] peter07043: anne’s…ugh
[12:22] Larry07052: is nick going?
[12:22] peter07043: no
[12:24] peter07043: you know c#
[12:24] Larry07052: yes
[12:24] peter07043: you wanna work here?
[12:24] Larry07052: LOL
[12:24] Larry07052: no
[12:24] Larry07052: maybe
[12:24] Larry07052: do you want to submit my resume and get the bonus?
[12:25] peter07043: if u decide to apply
[12:25] peter07043: adp would kinda suck for u tho
[12:25] Larry07052: go ahead and submit it
[12:26] Larry07052: i’ve got my first phone interview at 1:30
[12:26] peter07043: k email it to me when you have time, next week
[12:26] Larry07052: download the pdf
[12:28] peter07043: “We left during Thundercrack and missed Born in the USA, which pissed Brian off a little bit “
[12:28] peter07043: u missed born to run, not bitusa
[12:28] Larry07052: right
[12:28] Larry07052: post a comment
[12:29] peter07043: which upset Brian, who said something about the hypocrisy of me having a big peace sign tattooed on my shoulder
[12:29] peter07043: LOL
[12:29] peter07043: LOL
[12:29] Larry07052: post comments
[12:29] peter07043: i dont wanna get involved
[12:30] Larry07052: LOL
[12:30] peter07043: it might upset your prima dona boyfriend
[12:30] Larry07052: it would
[12:31] Larry07052: but it would be funny
[12:31] peter07043: but its funny cuz sometimes when i think of you, i see that peace sign tattoo, and you cursing out cab drivers in arabic
[12:31] Larry07052: post comments on the blog
[12:32] peter07043: how do you spell kusakta
[12:32] Larry07052: chutspa
[12:32] peter07043: or whatever u said
[12:32] peter07043: what did you yell at cab drivers
[12:32] Larry07052: oh
[12:33] Larry07052: coos-ach-ta
[12:34] peter07043: the nice jewish boy, liberal, deadhead with a peace sign tattoo screaming coos-ach-ta…
[12:34] Larry07052: are you posting comments on the blog?
[12:34] peter07043: no
[12:34] peter07043: i wont upset brian
[12:34] peter07043: then you’ll freak out
[12:34] Larry07052: LOL
[12:34] peter07043: and say shit like “we’re not friends!!”
[12:42] Larry07052: whatev