We're all accustomed to hearing car stereo systems blast music that can be heard in a block-wide radius as the car drives by. Pounding back-beats thump through over-sized woofers to shake the streets with the disembodied bass of some hip-hop or house-music track.

Very annoying.

But Berea, of course, is different. Yeah, the drivers here play their music as loud as anywhere else. But yesterday as I worked at my desk I heard a car drive down our quiet street. Its windows were open, its stereo was on, its volume was up.

The odd part: the guy was playing what sounded like polka music.

It wasn't so much annoying as it was confusing.

Another warm day at Berea-Rose. And soon it will be quitting time -- I shall recline in the backyard and read a book, maybe drink some Fortissimo.

But first I will spray copious amounts of bug-repellent -- was out chatting with the neighbors last night and the mosquitoes feasted on my blood. My legs itch like mad and I probably contracted malaria.

See what happens when it finally rains?

We're still waiting for Frylock to post his cloak-and-dagger tale of Las Vegas intrigue (apparently, a secret agent entertainer was caught smuggling a secret message scrawled on special spy-paper -- the suspense is killing me).

The boys look so good for school, how exciting!!
The townhouse that exploded in Strongsville yesterday, wow. There are only two locations I am familiar with in Ohio, and that was one of them, I hope everything is alright.
PS-I will be off to Las Vegas for Steve's wedding. I'm sure we'll have a report for you when we get back early next week. Ciao

And off they go -- it's back to school day for Da Chimpz. They were up and at 'em early this morning, getting on their uniforms (Mojo's gotta wear a uniform now!), slipping on their new shoes, combing their hair for the first time in... well, a while.

It has been rainy for days around here -- the grass, which had been brown and crunchy for most of the summer, is now a rich and lush carpet of green. One that needs cutting. Again.

And the bugs... wow.

Well, as I look at the clock, I see that Da Chimpz have been in the school building for close to two hours already. And it makes me wonder: what kind of trouble have they already gotten themselves into?

Yes, far too many classics from the rock and roll canon have been dubbed onto TV commercials -- Led Zep for a car, Chemical Brothers for beer. What's next? James Brown for Viagra?

I feel good!

That Chemical Brothers beer commercial would have sold more units if they'd just played the original video -- with the kids sneaking into the club to do some down-home clown-krumping. Until they get thrown out. And arrested.

Did you know... I can go to Japan? And back.

"Wow."

I prefer songs, especially songs I like, how I remember them. In short, when they are songs and not the ever-present rhythym of a commercial.

Something's wrong when you force a perfectly good Violent Femmes song to be a fast food jingle.

Before.

After.

Or maybe I just appreciate the purity of a strong bass line.

Discuss.

Got the new Chemical Brothers CD. (Bought it. Really.)

It rocks. Especially this one -- it's very strange, and I can't get it out of my head:

When Fat Lip says "wow" he reminds me of someone; when Sammy the Salmon says "I can go to Japan" he reminds me of someone else.

Back to the home office at Berea-Rose. Was a long week schlepping around NYC -- lots of meetings at the office, lots of creative commuting (as with Foz dropping me curbside at Yankee stadium to catch the D train to the office, arriving just in time to throw on biz-clothes and join a critical meeting... the new stadium seems to be coming along nicely).

Wednesday night I stayed in the city, knowing I'd need to get an early start the next day. So I checked into a room off Times Square (cheapest I could find) and decided to stroll west into Hell's Kitchen to see the streets I roamed back in 1985 (that long summer selling ice cream from carts, carts warehoused on 45th and 10th Ave). Wow is that neighborhood different. But still some pockets of the old seediness. In fact, quite a few pockets... meshed with outdoor eateries and streaming tourists. Odd.

I completed my loop and started back around, now looking for something to eat. I stopped in the Aghan Kebab House. Alane and I recall going there once in the mid-90s but we can't remember exactly when or why. I sat and gazed out the window at the storefront of Empanada Mama across 9th Ave -- haven't been there in a while either. I got a chicken and lamb kebab on basmati rice with salad and flatbread. Yeah baby... that was nice.

Then I went back to the hotel to see if I could catch a Met game on the telly but fate a cruel joke in store for me: the only game available over the hotel's cable service was the Indians game. So I read my newspapers and went to sleep.

Yesterday was very rushed as I had booked an afternoon flight instead of the always-delayed evening flight. Could hardly eat the gyro-platter street-meat I'd gotten from the corner cart for lunch. Raced out the door and got to the airport and was surprised to actually get an on-time flight back to Berea-Rose. Wonders never cease. Even got home in time for the boys to eat their black-and-white cookies without having to wait until the next day. That's a first.

Tom, I wish I was able to come down to Jupi. I loved the chronicles. If I was with you while waiting for Ree at Whole Foods I would've played with you. I would have tried at every available moment to get my coolie and crotcheola in the girls' face, acting like I didn't know anything was weird.
GOSH---I wish I was there. LOVE YOU! There's always The Snow Storm of March 2007 when we went snow crazy at the local Glastonbury elementary school. We sledded, beat each other up, got totally giddy, and you and the red headed kid rode the tubes pishy to pishy imitating Kristie and I. That was magic!

I'm back at the organic house.

My time with Steve, MariaRose, Aunt Marie, Uncle Vinny, Josh (the ninja meatman), Joe, Jessica, and whoever else I forgot, was punctuated in awesomeness by the few appearances of Lori, Mike "I Wish You Were Dead" Gallo (I have no idea who to spell his name - I just assume that's right), Marcus, and four random girls that played Twister with me (The triumphant tale follows). I probably forgot a bunch of people. Sorry. You're loved just as much.

Here is the Twister story, that everyone heard anyway, but must be published for the sake of being published:

It was my last night with the Mastandreas, and Lori came over along with Joe, Jessica, and their baby for a wonderful BBQ. Steve cooked up burgers, chicken, and some other great foods, along with our knishes that took me and Steve countless journeys to Whole Foods and Publixes to finally find. Lori had brought over Twister to have some fun with, but unfortunately, we never got around to playing it. At the end of the evening, which will be elaborated on some other time, Josh had to pick up MariaRose from work, and bring Lori home. I tagged along for the ride.

We drove up to Whole Foods, and I realized that we still had Twister. Lori and I decided that we needed to play some Twister before the night was through, even if it meant grabbing random people along the way to play with us. Josh didn't seem to fully approve, but we still went with it.

Josh found his way up to see how much time MariaRose had to stay at work, and me and Lori took the Twister mat and spinner front and center, getting ready to set up in order to play. Finding out that Lori nor Josh wanted to play Twister with me was a stab to the chest. I asked around to people walking by and some people walking out of Whole Foods, looking for at least one other person to play with. Nobody wanted to play Twister with a poor, desperate teenager.

Finally, I saw the glowing Holy Grail before me, in the form of four girls right around my age walking by us. They were the loud kind, not caring to respect the people around them, and they were out looking for a good time. I look at Lori and Josh and tell them, "Ten bucks says they'd play with me. They'd do it, I know they would." Josh proceeded to tell me to ask, so as they walked past, I called out, "Hey guys, wanna play Twister?"

Only one of them heard me, and she turned around as her three friends continued on their way. "It's Twister!" I called once more, the folded mat held up in one hand to show the wonderful service I could provide. She whipped around and yelled at her friends, "Bitches, get back here! WE'RE PLAYING SOME FUCKING TWISTER!"

They turned around and came back, and we set up the mat on the sidewalk in front of Whole Foods.

To recap: It's about 10:30 at night. There're a few people still roaming around the plaza, and there are five kids about to settle down to play Twister in public, right in front of a Whole Foods store. For the sake of the story, all four of these girls are smokin' hot, and they'd totally do me if they got the chance. I swear they were all totally sober...

Lori and Josh spin and call out what limb we should put on what color, while taking pictures all the while. From what I heard after, there was a lot of buttcrack visuals involved with those girls playing Twister. One by one, they fell until the victor stood. Yeah, it was me. *WIN*

As they were getting ready to leave, we explained that I was from Connecticut and just visiting, and I inquired about getting their phone numbers. They gave me a list of eight things to do while in Florida, along with one of their phone numbers. Lori got an email address and a Myspace page, to send the pictures to when she got a chance.

I got a phone number from playing Twister in front of Whole Foods. Try and tell me that is not brilliant.

Thank you everyone for letting me stay with you, and letting my hang out with you.

Steve, thanks for taking me out and letting me chill with you and your friends for a while. I really appreciate that.

Josh, I'm sorry we couldn't go to play pool. If my parents hadn't waited so long to get down and have another child, I wouldn't have had a curfew.

MariaRose, thanks for being pretty much awesome. <3 Lots of love. I had a great time.

Aunt Marie and Uncle Vinny, thanks for the food, the shelter, and being awesome the entire week. :-)

Lori, thanks for Twister. And thanks for being uber cool. That's right. I said it. Uber. Comment me back on Myspace, or I'll go emo and cut myself and write fake suicide notes all about how you made me hate life and how no one understands me and all that jazz.

Thanks everyone else I didn't get to, because I'm getting summoned off the laptop. It was an amazing week.

No, I didn't check for typos.

It was my night to put Da Chimpz to sleep tonight. I was reading them the continuing saga of Beowulf (he'd just ripped Grendel's arm off and Heorot was about to be attacked by Grendel's moms). As we all got into position, Mojo asked that question that every parent dreads hearing:

What if a giant pickle attacks the earth?

I assured him it would have a salutary effect on our standard of living.

And speaking of pickles: Have another beer, Torre.

Made you laugh, eh? What a coincidence: last night Da Chimpz and I held a no-laughing contest. I wanted to see who could go the longest without busting out. There was no winner.

Marlo, you need more beef. Jenia, give your wife the au jus she deserves. And remember: no laughing.

These last few blogs have made me laugh, gush, smile, and possibly a little bewildered. Thanks guys!! Alane, I've had jury duty thrice (if you will), and at all times it was completely uneventful, your story was so graphic, I felt like I was in there with you. Hilarious. One time I had a judge who HATED all of us. He even commented on where we lived and worked with sighs and eye rolls.
Ellie....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
And finally, Tom, I nearly sh*t myself. Our apartment has organic shampoo, conditioner, body wash, all natural toothpaste, recycled paper goods, and about 2 grocery bags worth of organic food. Our toothpaste is white with mint shards in it, but we aren't afraid of "non organic material." If the tv is on in our house it has something to do with the Food network, HBO, or dare I say it, FitTv. I think we're still down-to-earth though. Thank you for this blog, you made me reconsider those solar panels for my future home, I was thinking of going to an expo for. Maybe I'm a little overboard. I do practice yoga on a regular basis, as well as the teacher training, I haven't eaten meat in about 5 days, and that was turkey in a sangaweech, Jenia gave me a 1/2. There isn't any reason for this. I have to get with the program, I'm feeling less and less Italian everyday, that's a terrible crisis. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Oh, Jenia and I were discussing old tv shows that we used to watch when we were young (me in 1986, him in 1996), one of them was Alvin & the Chipmunks. He got so excited by the nostalgia, that he started singing the theme song: "I-min, Simon, Fyodor..do,do,do do do do!"

Bet you all are wondering why the "19" on the cake. . . Joe's cake will have a "19" on it next month as well. We celebrate the number of birthdays since we met. . .it's when our lives truly began. . .

You can all say "ahhhhhhhhhhh" now or throw up. . .your choice.

And the cake is yummy, very velvety and chocolaty yummy.

This morning there was a tornado in Brooklyn. Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and, yes, Kensington. Stories are on Google News and video is on You Tube.

Since the New York Times mentioned damage reports at 37th St. and 13th. Ave., 370 E. 2nd St. and Dahill Rd. at Church Ave., I called Otto. No damage in the old neighborhood. Over 40 damages homes, 200 damaged cars and numerous trees down, though.

Yesterday was Ellie's birthday. We're still working on the chocolate cake.

I'm sure you recognize this lovely melody Stranger in Paradise.



But did you know that the original theme is from the Polovtsian Dance Number Two by Borodin?

Sweet. I'm in Florida. I'll be here until the fifteenth. Maybe I'll get to see you all. :-) I'm staying with Uncle Sammy and Aunt Carolyn (...I hope I have her name right...) and they have quite the interesting household. You'll find that CSPAN is on the TV quite a bit, and that they're doing their best to make a difference in the world. They like to try and conserve energy...They eat organic foods...They use recyclables and keep up to times with what's happening in the world. A few things I'm concerned about, though.

In the shower, they have 'Mane and Tail' shampoo and coniditioner. This shampoo has pictures of horses on the front. I've never heard of it, and today was the first time I used this brand of shampoo. I'm still trying to figure out if I just used the soap fit for horses to wash my hair. At least I won't smell like I have horse B.O. or have bugs in my hair...right?

They also have organic toothpaste. It's brown. I guess it's the most natural mint flavor I've ever tasted. Did it work better? I couldn't tell you. All I know is that instead of having light blue as I scrubbed my mouth, it looked like I took milk chocolate and smeared it all over my teeth vigorously.

This is a thinking household, meaning that even if you want to just hang around and relax, or if you want to maybe watch the Sci-Fi channel instead of something that will inform you of politics, you will probably end up thinking about global warming and/or the new ethics bill propositions.

You might also end up going to see foreign films that you need subtitles to understand, or go to museums that have art with the thought provoking power to make you ask, "What would possess someone to paint a blue and orange stripe on a green background and sell it for millions of dollars to the highest bidder?" Maybe the thoughts being provoked from my mind aren't what I was supposed to be wondering.

All in all, my first day here was an interesting experience. Thirteen days to go.