friday night i had good fun, conversation, video games, and procrastination with great friends. i met up with
saturday, i woke up intolerably early. i got about three and change hours sleep – this becomes important since exhaustion is currently threatening to overwhelm me. i hung around online, and did some work, hoping i would get a chance to chat with a few people before disappearing for the day. alas, that did not happen, but at least i got a good amount of work under my belt.
i met up with
i walked south from wangch61’s place after watching orgasmo, after the game – took the subway to my next engagement.
i was 5 minutes early to a friend’s opening at a gallery/store called Cronick Valentine. They do some absolutely fantastic stuff with t-shirts, and had some great stuff on the walls. i highly reccomend. i was first there to examine art, and last to buy the piece i had been eyeing all night. some great conversations were shared about shooting ranges, midievil weapons and fighting styles, and about abuse in relationships. after the opening, it was decided that more food and drink needed to be procured.
in a ragtag traipsing about the easty village, i managed to consume a wonderfully delicious hot dog (sans bun) and had one or two drinks. i was not drinking heavily, mostly because i already knew i wasn’t going to get drunk.
at around 1ish, we ended up at this bar off ludlow where someone’s dj friend was spinning. he wasn’t bad, but shit, the club was. overpriced, mixed clientele – it was just, sketchy east village. i love that stuff from back in the day, but am not so much into hip-hop clubs of that genre. too many ghetto skanks between me and the bathroom whenever you need to go.
i met a huge amount of people – i can’t even begin to remember all the names. i managed not to make a total ass of myself talking to all these strangers about a wide variety of things. i am supposed to go see a show at the knitting factory tomorrow (the possibility of which is thin in outlook at the moment) with some of these new faces i bonded with.
bonded – this is not something one normally does at a post-show drinkathon. interestingly enough though, last night we were squarely set in the middle of a bloomberg-statistic raising crime sweep, to rid the streets of lower eastern manhattan of all the dangerous elements which pay the taxes there (or at least keep the bars afloat). one of the members of this new-association crew got busted on the street for smoking a jay. he got completely narced – undercover was right in his face, ran across the street, squad car rolled by, then 30 seconds later an unmarked showed up and cuffed him. word of this travelled downstairs at the club, and i ran up to see what the situation was.
it was at this point that i realized i was the soberest of the revelers remaining (who numbered four, not including myself). i got as much 411 from the cops as i could before they dragged my friend away. the charge they were going to lay on him was minimal – however, he had an unknown volume of contraband on him at the time of bust, which i was horribly concerned about. however, given the general distress and blood alchohol/other substance levels of my compatriots, i let that fear sit until i had more data.
so, at around twoish, we ran a trek to the 7th presinct. we scared up some fantastic rat action, and i began to get into more than smalltalk with this odd quatrain i was riding along for at least a verse with. my (unfortunate) intimate knowledge of the arrest and what follows was very helpful.
i got the arresting cop’s badge number. i got the section of the penal code he was being charged with breaking. i was very precise in getting as much contact info, time, and tentative understanding of what his trip to seeing a judge was going to have in store. the cop, who was coming off shift, was not pleased to be assailed for 10 minutes confirming everything he went through with me, but i know from experience you can’t let this crap slide too much. ultimately, i knew this trip was going to end at 100 center street, but i was unsure what path that would take, given that we were already fairly far downtown. my last visit to central booking, i was very uptown when i was arrested, so i was shuffled around a whole lot.
important reminder of the evening/morning: when you give a bunch of peeps your bag so you don’t have to carry it through precinct security, remember to stash your pocketknife in that bag.
armed with what knowledge i could get, i rejoined the fold, and we decided to go back to brooklyn to sit the vigil, and figure out how long things would take to resolve. i assumed midmorning sunday, but fuck shows what i know. as i was sitting around googling all the possibilities that could await my friend if they did trump charges, he was languishing rather uncomfortably in situations i know too well. his retelling brought memories back to the forefront of my mind like bees in a clover field. i read my email, and realized i had to somehow update twoheadedcat. there was some great conversation, and some unbelievable rose-flavored tobacco on a wonderful water pipe (whose name escapes me at the moment), and some lovely coffee. it has been more than 10 years since i felt gelled with a small clutch of people who were aquaintences at best, but quickly became friends.
around 8am today (yesterday now), myself and another member of this posse got up and moving so that we could go down to the court when it opened. unfortunately, we had no further information from their end in terms of a court schedule. it was decided we were going to sit tight until we heard from this friend (which we hadn’t heard from since the night before).
breakfast was procured. people napped on and off. i had eggs and turkey bacon, and cursed the undead low-carb gods in my lack of doughnutness. it was around this time that there was a jailbreak at central booking, which put the building into lock down for 4-6 hours, and threw off the entire “get the fuck outta jail” process back at least that far.
around 11, we decided we needed to get the fuck out. at a point between breakfast and 11, the wife of the jailbird realized she left her keys at home. it was a good thing we had caravaned to sit the vigil together, because she would have been locked out of her house! supers were called, plans were made, and, ultimately, we resolved to go sit in prospect park and get sun, waiting for phone calls.
now, my phone was not fully charged when i went out saturday night. like myself, at that point, it was largely running on a small blue sliver of energy.
with still no real word on what was going on in the “getting to a judge” process, we recollected, got some food, and went to the goddamn park. on the way to the park, we witnessed the near-death of a two year old kid who broke away from his father, and ran directly into moving traffic. a stranger stopped and saved the kid from certain death beneath a van. it was very heart-stopping.
my phone was all but dead at this point. i wish it was not, otherwise i would have taken many pictures. today was just an unbelievable experience – in company, in weather/environment, and particularly in conversation. we saw some great kites, the shooting of a music video, some interesting lesbian activities, lots of tots and pets, and some glorious sun. details were fleshed out about the newly formed PTF – the penguin translocation foundation, whose mission is actually to transplant several species of penguin from the south pole to the north pole. they have a debriefing center in greenland, and are, in fact, a secret front for polar bear enthusiasts to ensure that polar bears enjoy the fun and convienence of oreos with flippers.
i will definitely be going back, to see these people, and to chill in the park. next time the trip should include more, people by at least one, and should not have a fixed negative agenda as a centerpiece.
when the sun finally hid itself behind the skyline, we broke camp to return to the nearest apartment and sit more vigil. we got a phone call announcing the best possible news. not only was our boy behind bars coming home, but the judge dismissed all charges, given his lack of any kind of record, and his courtesy and cooperation. green tea was made in a breathtaking service, and everyone rejoiced in the upcoming resolution to what was a grueling ordeal for all involved. a few minutes later, the jailbird came to roost, and there was much rejoicing.
i ended up taking a dumb subway back, the c all the way to 14th, where i switched to the uptown green. when i got in, i took a long shower, then went to work doing updates. i should have gone to bed at least two songs ago but i am sitting rereading all this drek, trying to get as much as i can tied down, before exhaustion literally puts me down where i am sitting.
i hope everyone else had an interesting weekend. every time you open your door, there is an adventure waiting to happen. i do not think work is going to be much fun in 7 hours!