Friends

Time well spent

/ Nathan Lavertue / 1 Comment

It was a good, yet long, weekend.

It started, and ended, at Duff’s. Literally.

I went to Duff’s to meet up with Tracy for a quick bite to eat before meeting up with Stella and her gaggle of friends for her birthday. We started at the Charleston, worked our way to Lost and Found, and ended up back at Duff’s! I saw Bloodhouse play. Completely unexpected. Apparently they had a friend who lives in the area who was also having a birthday party and decided to come down from Beantown and play. Awesom. Glad I got to see them. Stella, Hannah and a pile of other people wandered to Duff’s where the night became unraveled! I didn’t drink Friday, or at all this weekend, but everyone else was making up for it. No question. I wound up finally heading home around 3:30am or so. Only to be called about 4 times by Stella. Classic.

Saturday was watching the Rangers pound (dual meaning) on the Flyers.  The backup goalie got his second shutout, ever. And there were 4 brawls in the game. And from people you wouldn’t have expected. It was a fun game to watch. Sheri surprised me by coming straight from her office to my house. After 3 weeks of being away, she didn’t even go home! Crazy woman. We hung out at the house for a bit, watched the game and got some deserved food. I skipped my concert that night to spend time with her. We went out for dinner and then went to Devo and Bianca’s last New York show, at least for awhile. It was really silly, but also strange since Sheri shockingly knew 4 or 5 people there! Devo’s Mom showed up, as well. It did, however, provide for a great quote, “Hey, I have the glow in the dark hair spray if you want it?!”

Sunday was sleep late, eat at a new brunch spot, watch another hockey game and let Sheri do her errands and pack for her trip to India. In the evening I went to see High on Fire and A Life Once Lost at Europa. I actually got to meet the guys and hang out back stage for most of the night. Although, I actually did buy a ticket. Matt, the lead singer for High on Fire scolded me for buying one and told me not to the next time they come. Very nice guy. Metal nights are fun. Made a few other random connections as well….

All in all, it was a good fun and relaxing weekend. I did a lot and a lot of nothing all in the same weekend.

It’s a mystery to me

/ Nathan Lavertue / 1 Comment

Beyond being myself, I haven’t really done.

Tonight, ended oddly, somehow perverse, somehow prophetic and somehow irrelevant. I went to the US Christmas/Mastodon/Neurosis show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. This in itself was already a strange concoction of the evening. What was surprising, and yet admirable, was both the last two acts had fuck ups.  And they didn’t attempt to hide it, it was ok, and fixed, and let’s move on. It was terrific. It provided the, if only momentary, humanity of the event itself. The crowd certainly blanketed any conscious attempt at being so. For the most part they were, well, dignified.  It was a glorious event. A wholesome escape in the norm that has become northern Brooklyn. It made me gag a little. Thankfully the event was maintained by persons of color, other wise the event would have been entirely void of any.  Pathetic. As much as I love to pretend I’m helping the bands performing, I’m equally hurting the neighborhood they are playing in. And I have no way of justifying it other than I’m not helping out some mega conglomerate company.

Opinions and rants aside, it was a night of who you know or where you go.

I ventured to my usually watering hole, Duff’s, after making a more than needed stop into San Loco for some dinner around 12:30am. When I got to Duff’s it was typical. A handful of people who are quickly introduced by the lovely Tracy. Then all hell breaks loose. By mid bite of my third and final taco, Bill from Mastodon shows up. And slowly the deluge of fans and cling-ons show up at Duff’s. Thankfully, I know the bartender and the members of the band.  I spit with Stella and Brent for a bit, who eventually exit into the remainder of what of is Thursday night. I stumble around and somehow make myself useful enough that JD (the owner) decides I can drink for free for the rest of the night. Great. Jimmy, I drove my car here. What the hell am I gonna do with free drinks. Fuck it, it’s Thursday, I drink.

All in all, it was nice. I got to, if only briefly, chat with Stella, Tracy, Brent, Bill, Dave, Joel, Brann, and Troy. And some other random girl so messed up all I wanted to do was kick her in the head. No, I mean it. This girl was so out there it was getting on my nerves.

Anyhow, it was nice to be me yet have, what some who see as cool, happen to me.  No complaints. Well, maybe I’ll regret the staying up late when I have to get up for work, but that’s par for the course.

Heiko Müller

/ Nathan Lavertue / Leave a comment

My friend Heiko showed up in a place I frequent often

“Currently exploring the merging points between religious icon art, renaissance painting and comic culture. I am particularly thrilled by the kind of spiritual terror you find expressed in the paintings of the old Flemish masters, and trying to find out what happens when you apply that mood to the serene and harmless world of rural folk art. On top of that also rediscovering drawing at the moment.”

Computerlove