Winter used to be the season of cold.
In 1978 a blizzard dropped three feet of snow on the Northeast.
The suburbs were cut off from the cities by ten-foot drifts on the highways.
I lived in the East Village.
At night I clomped through the yellowing slush to CBGBs.
Army boots and a leather coat were our survival gear.
It was a great time to be 25.
Here's a video of those times by Waylon Bones.
Go to this URL
ttps://vimeo.com/263659024
The winter of 2014-2015 achieved record colds throughout New England. The accumulated snowfall in Boston towered over humans, shutting down highways and public transportation. Even worse were the incessant sub-zero temperatures freezing rivers and coating the ocean with a thick slush tapping at the coast.
At the end of February Brian Sagar photographed a series of frozen waves crashing to the shore in Newburyport.
According to boredpanda.com, Nimerfroh said that the high temperature that day had been only 19F, or -7C, cold enough for ice to form near the shore, but not cold enough to form solid pieces of ice, which is why the waves had to travel through a layer of slush to reach the shore.
No one was attempting to surf these 'Slurpee' waves.
But some fool attempted to bogey board them.
The phenomenal swells vanished after a half-hour and the sea went flat.
2015 had been a cold winter indeed.
There is a cold season in Thailand. Winter arrives right before Loi Krathong. Thais bundle up in the North and even in Pattaya locals complain about the change in the weather. They grab their arms with a shiver. "Nao."
"Cold? I'll tell you about cold. When I was a kid, you had to put anti-freeze in your oatmeal," Johnny Carson joked on the Tonight Show to the gaw-faws of his faithful sidekick, Ed McMahon.
Thailand is not really cold.
Canada is cold. They play hockey year-round on ice until they export it to the USA for cocktail drinks, which is the only real cold most Thais experience, because the chance of snow in Thailand are as remote as a snowball in hell, however 2bangkok.com posted a story about a freak storm over 50 years ago.
Surprisingly some Thais have seen snow in their lifetime.
Not in Switzerland or the USA, but up north, for on Jan. 8 1955 Chiang Rai was hit by a winter storm of rain, small hail and ice flakes. The white stuff stuck to the ground for 38 hours before melting in the tropical sun.
The blizzard of 1955.
In Maine my grandfather said there were two seasons, "The season of good sledding and the season of bad sledding."
Thailand has only one season.
That of bad sledding unless you go to DreamWorld in Bangkok where they have a snow room complete with inner tubes for sliding down a frozen sheet of man-made snow.
"Nao."
ps Last night the overnight temperature in Mae Hong Song was 65F
On June 6, 1944 UK, Canadian, and US troops landed on five Normandy beaches and broke through Hitler's Atlantic Wall to liberate France and the rest of Western Europe, while another army slogged up the Italian peninsula. The American soldiers fought the Nazis thousands of times from the Battle of the Bulge and Anzio to small skimirshes in the villages through France and Germany.
The hundred thousand American dead are buried along the trail of victory.
In November 11, 2011 I stood on the grass of the Luxembourg WWII cemetery surrounded by thousands of tombstones with the names of the dead. I cried thinking of these boys and men dedicating their lives to end the thousand-year Third Reich.
Proud, but new battle lines have been drawn across America.
Trump has given the green light to far-right scum like the all-male/pseudo-Nazi Proud Boys founded by non-American Gavin McInnes, who said the group's name came from Disney's ALLADIN song "Proud of Your Boy" in which Aladdin apologized to his mother for being a boy. Gavin has probably said the same thing to his mother.
After all the hipster one-time owner of VICE magazine likes Broadway tunes and we all know what that means especially when a man likes Broadway tunes.
The Proud Boys number from 700 to 6000 members mostly young white (no women allowed) come from the nowhere lands of the suburbs and exurbs. According to Wikipedia their four-stage initiation process includes a loyalty oath, on the order of "I’m a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world"; the second is getting punched until the person recites pop culture trivia, such as the names of five breakfast cereals; the third is getting a tattoo and agreeing to not masturbate; and the fourth is getting into a major fight "for the cause."
No masturbation?
An addendum was changed to allow heterosexual brother of the Fraternity the freedom to jerk off once in any calendar month unless it's in a circle jerk in the shape of swastika" and "all members shall abstain from pornography" unless it's wanking to naked photos of Donald Trump.
No opioids and crystal meth either, but cocaine is cool.
Complete and utter scum.
They are truly dangerous. Fuck them all.
Back in the day Pattayawasis a paradise for middle-aged western men with money. Food, accommodation, cheap beer and beautiful girls calling old men sexy. None of these seductive women were blind, yet the men forget about the truth of the mirrored reflection, for as Frederick Engels the co-writer of THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO said, "Money is the one thing that can grow hair on a bald man's head for a woman."
Pattaya most certainly was the closest thing to Eden, however men needed money to operate as a sexy men and this year my friend Jamie Parker found his fun funds close to 'empty'. He wasn't a gambling man, but bought several Thai lottery tickets with a portion of his last 1000-baht bill. The numbers came out in the Thai newspapers. None of which Jamie ever read, however his geek, Ort, discovered that Jamie had purchased a winning ticket.
25000 plus.
Jamie was back in the money and after redeeming the ticket his luck ballooned with the discovery of 5500 baht in an envelope at the 7/11. He waited for an hour outside the convenience store for someone to show up to claim the money. No one came in a panic. Up 30000 baht he returned to his unfurnished apartment on Soi Bongkot, thinking to take Ort out for a nice meal and found the go-go girl packing her bags.
An Englishman had decided she was the prettiest girl in the world and retired her from INSOMNIA GENTLEMAN’S CLUB. This was good news, since Jamie had been shedding 1000s of baht on the little go-go dancer's ice habit. She loved the gear. Jamie was semi-sad to see her go, although pleased that she wanted none of his cash.
"You good man. You find new girl. No one more pretty than me. Find ugly girl. She cheap."
"If you say so." Jamie watched her get into the farang's CRV 4X4. The guy was older than Jamie. Bald too. He wished them both luck. It wasn't the first time Ort left him for another man, but it was the first time she left with his having money in his pocket.
Jamie decided to celebrate this Trifecta of good luck with a binge at What’s Up a Go-Go. I was in town for a single night. Mem had cut me loose from Sriracha. I didn't plan on a late one.
"Go with friend. Have good time. No look at other lady." Mem knew that her love potion denied me any opportunity to cheat on her.
"No look. No touch." I kissed her and my son good night. The sun fell fast this time of year. It was barely 6 O'Clock. I got to the bar at 7. Jamie bought a round of shooters for two go-go dacners and then went over to the DJ with a CD and 2000 baht. The 55 year-old returned to the couch with a laconic smile. He had pulled a swift one and I asked, “What’s up?”
“I gave the DJ 200 baht to play the Doors’ THE END.” The song was ranked #328 in all-time great rock songs, despite its lasting over 11 minutes. “You’re joking?”
THE END had opened the movie APOCALYPSE NOW. I remembered watching Coppola’s homage to THE HEART OF DARKNESS at New York’s Ziegfield Theater and hearing the helicopters waft from left to right to rear to front.
The song took the go-go girls by surprise and the old guys in the bar too, but their eyes widened with surprise and their lips moved wordlessly to the lyrics.
“In a desperate land.”
Jamie bought more tequila for the girls on stage.
“Lost in a romance.”
He ordered another round realizing more drinks was only way to bridge to generations. The DJ was looking skeptical about THE END. Jamie flicked him another 200 baht.
“Ride the highway west baby.”
The old dudes were flipping cash too.
“The snake is long.” The girls understood THE END was a cash cow.
“The snake is old.”
The tequila worked its effect. The old guys ordered more. The young guys in What’s Up were out of their element by 40 years. The Doors and go-go girls. Jamie was right. Our generation.
“The killer woke before dawn.” The girls crawled against the steel poles like serpents with poison ivy.
The DJ still was uncertain about the choice.
Another 100 baht bought THE END to the end.
I was a Doors fan. They had no bass player in the band, but the bassist from Clear Light ie MR BLUE supported them in the studio and on the road. I still play CRYSTAL SHIP, but having the DJ play that would have been pushing ouR luck.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Jamie disappeared into the bathroom with the go-go dancer.
I left the bar. I only have one friend.
THE END
And Mem knows that too.
In 2012 the preacher for Live For God's Kingdom had biblically deciphered the mysteries of the Mayan Apocalypse. Scoot Reeve advised his flock to flee in St. Joseph, Michigan to Jerusalem as a safe refuge for true believers. His sermons of the Last of Days had reinforced the doomsday convictions of my old friend, the ex-model from Paris and she had written me a warning.
"The Beast is a new world order and I think has tied to the International Monetary Fund--which will prevent those faithful to Christ from buying or selling because they will not bow down to this satanic world's demand of receiving its mark of 666 upon their forehead and hand. The love of God in Christ and His Word are eternal."
Normally I responded to her apocalyptical fears with sardonic derision, however the next day a friend had spotted a car caravan of doomsayers in the West Village. The loudspeakers chanting out the date, May 21, 2011, the new and revised End of Times. The religious were chomping at the bit for Armageddon, so their beloved Jesus will transport them into the Rapture. They have no sense of humor, but the beauty of humanity is that we see the funny side of tragedy.
And according to some pundit, here's how the media will report the End.
USA Today: WE'RE DEAD
The Wall Street Journal: DOW JONES PLUMMETS AS WORLD ENDS
National Enquirer: O.J. AND NICOLE, TOGETHER AGAIN
Playboy: GIRLS OF THE APOCALYPSE
Microsoft Systems Journal: APPLE LOSES MARKET SHARE
Victoria's Secret Catalog: OUR FINAL SALE
Sports Illustrated: GAME OVER
Wired: THE LAST NEW THING
Rolling Stone: THE GRATEFUL DEAD REUNION TOUR
Readers Digest: 'BYE
Discover Magazine: HOW WILL THE EXTINCTION OF ALL LIFE AS WE KNOW IT AFFECT THE WAY WE VIEW THE COSMOS?
TV Guide: DEATH AND DAMNATION: NIELSON RATINGS SOAR!
Lady's Home Journal: LOSE 10 LBS BY JUDGMENT DAY WITH OUR NEW "ARMAGEDDON" DIET!
America Online: SYSTEM TEMPORARILY DOWN. TRY CALLING BACK IN 15 MINUTES.
Inc. magazine: TEN WAYS YOU CAN PROFIT FROM THE APOCALYPSE
Bring it on and take all the Bible-Thumpers to wherever they want to go.
The sooner the better.
Just so you know 12/21/2012 passed with the slightest threat of human extinction.
TORA TORA TORA was one of my mother's favorite films. The infamy of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor burned bright in her memory. Her friends from Jamaica Plain enlisted in the Marines, Army, and Navy by the scores. Many of them failed to return to Boston. Their bodies rest on islands across the Pacific.
The 1970 film flopped at the box office. Hippies didn't want to see a war movie, but I went with my mother and father. She cried at the sinking of the Arizona. My father had joined the Army Air Force that January much like many young Americans volunteered for the armed forces after the 9/11 attacks.
The producers of MAGNUM PI and NYPD BLUE manipulated the Japanese Navy's radio command TORA TORA TORA into TORAH TORAH TORAH for episodes about stolen Torahs. It has never been used by the IDF, who have been trying to draft Yeshiva students into the army without any success, for they consider the Torah trumps any secular laws.
Last Friday I was on West 47th Street and ran into Rondell, a religious diamond dealer.
"So nu?"The heavy-set Hassidic diamond broker was happy that I had a new job. We boasted about the health of our families and after a few minutes I asked his opinion about the power of the Torah over the laws of man.
"The Torah was dictated to Moses over the forty years in the desert. The words come from a divine source." The Torah was the law for Rondell.
"What about the last eight lines? Some scholars considered that these were composed after the Death of Moses."
"They are all sacred." The youngish father of six was a true believer from a schul on Eastern Parkway and said proudly, "You know that the Torah is one of the most important school books in Korea. Its truth is taught to many of the young."
"The Torah?" I understood how the five books of Moses formed the backbone of Hassidic tradition and the Christian accepting the Pentateuch into their Old Testament as well as the Muslims regarding the ancient text to be the words of Allah, but Korea was on the other side of the world and while 22% of its people claimed to be Buddhists and almost a third profess to be Christian, almost half the country adhere to no religion. "What's the Torah have to do with Korea?"
"The Korean ambassador told Israeli TV that Talmud study is a mandatory part of the country’s school curriculum and almost every home in South Korea boasts a Korean version of the Talmud, and mothers commonly teach it to their children, who call it the "Light of Knowledge."
"I know many Koreans are Christian. I had several baptized in my youth."
My old boss shook his head. Manny had heard this schtick before.
"You were a missionary?" Rondell knew of my devotion to atheism.
"No, but as a child in Boston the nuns offered us a chance to support Korean infant orphans. $15 took care of them for the first month of their life and you got to name them." Somewhere in Korea were four men in their late-40s with my name. "Koreans are also prone to Evangelism."
"Evangelism?" Rondell was unfamiliar with Christian subsects.
"Born-Again Christians." Manny was listening to my every word.
At the mention of these words my Brazilian co-worker turned her head. Ava believed in the God of the Only Faith and she prayed for my abandoned soul, so I won't burn in Hell. I looked at her, as I said, "Yes, Born-Agains back Israel 100%, for without Israel there can be no Apocalypse and the Apocalypse bring back the Messiah to battle the forces of Satan. Ava, do you have a Torah in your house?"
"Yes, it's called the Book of Light." Ava's was guided by the Bible. To her every word was true, especially the Apocalypse. She noticed her boss glaring at her. He hated my bullshitting.
"Thanks." I respected her faith. This country the Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion and from religion. "The Talmud gets around and so does the Koran."
"Not according to the Korean Ambassador. He says no Koreans read it, because it's a book of Islam." Rondell hated the Arabs; Christians as well as Muslims.
"That's not true. I have traveled through Korea's main airport on my many trips to Thailand and seen a few Muslim Korean in Inchon Airport, but no Hassidim. They prefer to fly through Tokyo or Beijing on the way back from the Hong Kong diamond shows Jews either, but then you don't have to like pastrami to be Jewish."
"What does pastrami have to do with the Torah?"
"Nothing other than it isn't tref."
"Goyim." Rondell was ecstatic to have stumped me on this issue and said, "Call me if you get a deal we can steal."
"Will do." We had made money in the past and I hoped that we made money in the future. We hugged as men equal in love of the world and I walked him outside the exchange. I wasn't making any money on the Street today and shouted, "TORAH TORAH TORAH."
"Say the word." Rondell pumped his fist in the air. He was a good family man and loved the Torah as should any rebbi.
That evening back home in Fort Greene I searched for 'Korea, torah' and found the following;
Nearly ten years ago, the Korea Times reported: “Interestingly, there are at least two different books currently sitting on Korean best-seller shelves that purport to explain the Jewish Talmud. The popularity of these books initially came as a surprise. But Koreans aren’t converting to Judaism. They read those books because Jews have gained a reputation for hard work and success, two things Koreans relate to well.”
Reports of Korean schoolchildren reading the Talmud – or at least stories thereof – have also been known for several years. One American teacher in South Korea related that in 2005, his elementary school students told him that as children, they had all read the Talmud, which they called the "Light of Knowledge." When asked if they had also read the Koran, they burst into laughter, saying, "Of course not, that’s the Muslim book.”
TORAH TORAH TORAH, but I prefer a good pastrami sandwich from Katz' Deli.
Throw in a cream soda and I'm in heaven on earth.
