It's done.
I am finally completely moved into my new place, I got the deposit back from the old spot, and now I can spend my time unpacking and making my nest livable.
It took 12 hours and multiple trips with a UHaul van and a friend's car, but we did it.
Unfortunately I had to go straight to work afterwards, but I did take a shower before going and fell in love with something I had overlooked when scoping the place out originally.
Not only was the water pressure good and strong, and the water sufficiently hot, but I discovered that the shower/tub combo is quite large and the walls are the best part. No standard tile here. The side wall of the shower is exposed, treated brick! And the wall with the shower head is stone. How cool is that?
Granted the bathroom is pretty tiny. Not a lot of wiggle room when you get out of the shower. You're almost standing on the toilet.
But the tub/shower is so spacious when you're in it.
I really dig it.
Oh yeah and we have a fullsize kitchen finally. With more than enough counter space. A big complaint with the previous hovel.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Movin' Out
We signed a lease for our new apartment last week. The second floor of a well-lighted brownstone in Sunset Park. Gonna start hauling things over there this Wednesday. By Friday, I will say goodbye to this sodden hell-hole.
So let's look back on some of the good times that were had here:
1. Signing the lease one year ago and realizing that this was not an apartment after all. Due to housing laws, this basement cannot legally be rented as living quarters. Therefore it was rented to us under the guise of a "storage space". The ensuing problems we encountered throughout our stay were par for the course, I guess. We should've known better.
2. Waking up on the second morning of my stay in this place to discover that it was slowly filling with water. Most likely the sewer backed up and decided to flood our little abode.
3. Tearing up all the carpeting as a result of the flooding. At one point we had to move my bookcase aside to get the carpet from under it. I began taking the books out to make it easier to move. The landlord said, "No, just lift" and as he did the cheap pre-fab bookcase fell apart and my books tumbled into the remaining water from the flood.
4. Due to this place not being a legally recognized apartment, Time Warner would not transfer my account and hook up my cable internet. They wanted to send out someone from the Housing Authority to survey the place and determine if it was indeed an apartment. I cancelled my account and went with Verizon DSL, which took almost 3 months to install.
5. Sometime around mid-October we discover there is no hot water in the shower. We continually complain to the landlord, who finally gets around to fixing the water heater in March. 6 months of cold showers in the dead of winter. Awesome.
6. One day I try to leave the apartment and discover that I cannot open the door from inside. After about an hour, I am able to open the door and leave. A week later i come home from work and find my brother laying on the futon. He tells me he has been trapped in the apartment all day and finally just decided to call in sick to work and watch TV until I got home. We duct tape the door jamb and use the deadbolt to keep the door closed for the remainder of our stay.
7. As a Christmas present, the apartment floods again the morning of the 24th as I am leaving for Philadelphia.
8. We discover a hole in the wall next to the front door one day. We plug it with tinfoil and ignore it. A week later a friend of my brother is visiting and as we sit around talking the tinfoil pops out of the wall and a giant wire starts moving into the apartment. Steve's friend screams and runs away from the door. We later find out that the landlord is installing a call box so people can call from the front door.
9. Since the call box was installed, the landlord's children continually ring our doorbell. At least three or four times a week. I usually just press the talk button and calmly announce, "I'm gonna kill you all."
10. Sometimes the toilet handle sticks and the toilet keps running. If this happens at 3 or 4 in the morning, the landlord will continually ring our doorbell and say, "Jiggle the handle Steve! Dave! Jiggle the handle!"
11. Being a basement there is always some water that seeps up from the ground. I will often forget this and leave some books or Cds in a pile in the corner and when I pick them up a week later, they are mildewy. Again, awesome!
12. There were a few weeks last autumn when it rained alot. One night as the torrents came down I heard a dripping sound. I woke up and discovered that part of the ceiling had torn away. Chunks of plaster and drywall were dripping off and a steady stream of water was pouring onto the floor. I put a trashcan under to catch it, went upstairs to tell the landlord, then went back to sleep. Two weeks later he fixed the hole in the ceiling.
13. A strange smell starts eminating from the laundry room next to our apartment. Since we are not allowed to use the laundry room, I've never been in there. days pass and it smells more and more like death. I am convinced there is a dead rat somewhere. One night, as I am leaving for work I ask my brother if he's noticed the smell. We open our door and start hearing a cat mewling. I open the laundry room door and there is a kitten scratching at the door and the strong whiff of uncleaned cat litter. I shake my head and go to work. The next day there is no more cat sounds from the laundry room. But that night the landlord cooks up a lovely-smelling curried "lamb"...
Jeez, I could go on, but you get the idea.
One more week...
So let's look back on some of the good times that were had here:
1. Signing the lease one year ago and realizing that this was not an apartment after all. Due to housing laws, this basement cannot legally be rented as living quarters. Therefore it was rented to us under the guise of a "storage space". The ensuing problems we encountered throughout our stay were par for the course, I guess. We should've known better.
2. Waking up on the second morning of my stay in this place to discover that it was slowly filling with water. Most likely the sewer backed up and decided to flood our little abode.
3. Tearing up all the carpeting as a result of the flooding. At one point we had to move my bookcase aside to get the carpet from under it. I began taking the books out to make it easier to move. The landlord said, "No, just lift" and as he did the cheap pre-fab bookcase fell apart and my books tumbled into the remaining water from the flood.
4. Due to this place not being a legally recognized apartment, Time Warner would not transfer my account and hook up my cable internet. They wanted to send out someone from the Housing Authority to survey the place and determine if it was indeed an apartment. I cancelled my account and went with Verizon DSL, which took almost 3 months to install.
5. Sometime around mid-October we discover there is no hot water in the shower. We continually complain to the landlord, who finally gets around to fixing the water heater in March. 6 months of cold showers in the dead of winter. Awesome.
6. One day I try to leave the apartment and discover that I cannot open the door from inside. After about an hour, I am able to open the door and leave. A week later i come home from work and find my brother laying on the futon. He tells me he has been trapped in the apartment all day and finally just decided to call in sick to work and watch TV until I got home. We duct tape the door jamb and use the deadbolt to keep the door closed for the remainder of our stay.
7. As a Christmas present, the apartment floods again the morning of the 24th as I am leaving for Philadelphia.
8. We discover a hole in the wall next to the front door one day. We plug it with tinfoil and ignore it. A week later a friend of my brother is visiting and as we sit around talking the tinfoil pops out of the wall and a giant wire starts moving into the apartment. Steve's friend screams and runs away from the door. We later find out that the landlord is installing a call box so people can call from the front door.
9. Since the call box was installed, the landlord's children continually ring our doorbell. At least three or four times a week. I usually just press the talk button and calmly announce, "I'm gonna kill you all."
10. Sometimes the toilet handle sticks and the toilet keps running. If this happens at 3 or 4 in the morning, the landlord will continually ring our doorbell and say, "Jiggle the handle Steve! Dave! Jiggle the handle!"
11. Being a basement there is always some water that seeps up from the ground. I will often forget this and leave some books or Cds in a pile in the corner and when I pick them up a week later, they are mildewy. Again, awesome!
12. There were a few weeks last autumn when it rained alot. One night as the torrents came down I heard a dripping sound. I woke up and discovered that part of the ceiling had torn away. Chunks of plaster and drywall were dripping off and a steady stream of water was pouring onto the floor. I put a trashcan under to catch it, went upstairs to tell the landlord, then went back to sleep. Two weeks later he fixed the hole in the ceiling.
13. A strange smell starts eminating from the laundry room next to our apartment. Since we are not allowed to use the laundry room, I've never been in there. days pass and it smells more and more like death. I am convinced there is a dead rat somewhere. One night, as I am leaving for work I ask my brother if he's noticed the smell. We open our door and start hearing a cat mewling. I open the laundry room door and there is a kitten scratching at the door and the strong whiff of uncleaned cat litter. I shake my head and go to work. The next day there is no more cat sounds from the laundry room. But that night the landlord cooks up a lovely-smelling curried "lamb"...
Jeez, I could go on, but you get the idea.
One more week...
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
Jungle Woman of the Jungle Ad
Here's an unofficial poster for the play I am rehearsing for right now. It's shaping up rather nicely. So save those dates!
Friday, August 18, 2006
Freedom of '76
I love this video. An oldy but goody. A Spike Jonze-directed video of Ween doing their ode to The City of Brotherly Love. How can you miss?
And who of us has not at one time, in some drunken stupor, contemplated stealing that damn Liberty Bell?
And who of us has not at one time, in some drunken stupor, contemplated stealing that damn Liberty Bell?
The Roominghouse Madrigals
Rent in the New York area has increased 25% in the last five months. My brother talked to a landlord today in our continuing search for a place to live and he confessed that his properities are nowhere near worth what he is charging. But that is the going rate and it keeps climbing. He said that this was not a renter's market but a landlord's market. I read an article recently that said vacancies are "hovering around 0%".
When I first moved to this section of Brooklyn, I was paying $1300 for a pretty sizable 2 bedroom. If that place were on the market now it would fetch $1600 or more a month. Most apartments in this area are going for $2100 or more.
Another problem is the need for outstanding credit in order to even be considered a a renter, something that neither my brother nor I have. I know mine's not that great but the only balance I am carrying is my student loans. My brother's credit for some reason is terrible and we've been shown the door more than a few times when looking for a place.
I am too old to be dependent on my parents. But I am constantly told I need a guarantor to cosign the lease on a new apartment. Unfortunately for me I started a new job and that doesn't help matters. Never mind the fact that I make more now. I haven't been there long enough, so it counts against me.
So I am seriously considering putting my things in storage and renting a room by the week in a roominghouse until I find a place. Maybe I can help find bodies buried in the backyard.
Ooo, the excitement!
When I first moved to this section of Brooklyn, I was paying $1300 for a pretty sizable 2 bedroom. If that place were on the market now it would fetch $1600 or more a month. Most apartments in this area are going for $2100 or more.
Another problem is the need for outstanding credit in order to even be considered a a renter, something that neither my brother nor I have. I know mine's not that great but the only balance I am carrying is my student loans. My brother's credit for some reason is terrible and we've been shown the door more than a few times when looking for a place.
I am too old to be dependent on my parents. But I am constantly told I need a guarantor to cosign the lease on a new apartment. Unfortunately for me I started a new job and that doesn't help matters. Never mind the fact that I make more now. I haven't been there long enough, so it counts against me.
So I am seriously considering putting my things in storage and renting a room by the week in a roominghouse until I find a place. Maybe I can help find bodies buried in the backyard.
Ooo, the excitement!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
More Error Than Trial
Most of what I've learned about computers comes from constantly fucking things up.
Today, as I was trying clean the cache on my computer and generally make it run smoother, I deleted the System kernal extension and irreparably damaged everything. After much more "fucking around", trying to repair the problem, I ended up having to do an Archive and Install of the operating system. This is probably the third or fourth time I've done this.
I'm a jackass.
But i'm learning what NOT to do in the future. Perhaps in a few more years I'll know what I'm doing. By then I will have bought a brand new G5 a week before Apple introduces a G6. Cuz that's the way I roll.
Today, as I was trying clean the cache on my computer and generally make it run smoother, I deleted the System kernal extension and irreparably damaged everything. After much more "fucking around", trying to repair the problem, I ended up having to do an Archive and Install of the operating system. This is probably the third or fourth time I've done this.
I'm a jackass.
But i'm learning what NOT to do in the future. Perhaps in a few more years I'll know what I'm doing. By then I will have bought a brand new G5 a week before Apple introduces a G6. Cuz that's the way I roll.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
"Bummer man, that's a bummer."
I found myself half-way through Gilbert Hernandez' new graphic novel Sloth, thinking to myself, "This is fantastic! I want to option the rights to this thing and make it into a film." It felt very Lynchian at times and it seemed to be building to an amazing catharsis. Having lived through a coma myself, I was particularly taken by the nonchalant treatment of it as something that "just sorta happened" but, regardless, has completely altered the characters' lives in subtle ways. I completely identified!
Then suddenly there is a body-switch/parallel universe thing straight out of Lost Highway, and now I'm completely hooked. I start to get giddy and excitedly flip through the pages.
And then...pfft!
The story peters out in the third act and fizzles and loses its momentum, I feel. I was so bummed by the ending I almost felt like returning it. And that so rarely happens to me. I am pretty accepting of everything I read or watch and don't invest too heavily in any work of art to the point where I get upset if it fails to live up to my expectations.
But the first two thirds were great!
Then suddenly there is a body-switch/parallel universe thing straight out of Lost Highway, and now I'm completely hooked. I start to get giddy and excitedly flip through the pages.
And then...pfft!
The story peters out in the third act and fizzles and loses its momentum, I feel. I was so bummed by the ending I almost felt like returning it. And that so rarely happens to me. I am pretty accepting of everything I read or watch and don't invest too heavily in any work of art to the point where I get upset if it fails to live up to my expectations.
But the first two thirds were great!
Monday, August 14, 2006
"Eighty percent of success is showing up"*
I'd like to congratulate fellow Party Haller, Chris Sullivan, on finally getting a piece, "Your Flight, Three Years From Now", published by McSweeney's. They still haven't accepted anything of mine, but then, I'm not the writer he is, so I'm glad to see they still have standards!
(I've just realized this is the second post in a row where I've sung the praises of Mr. Sullivan. You owe me a beer next time we go to Reservoir, bitch.)
*quote from Woody Allen, who, as far as I know, hasn't had anything in McSweeney's either.
(I've just realized this is the second post in a row where I've sung the praises of Mr. Sullivan. You owe me a beer next time we go to Reservoir, bitch.)
*quote from Woody Allen, who, as far as I know, hasn't had anything in McSweeney's either.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Party Hall's On Notice
Party Hall For Rent are currently putting together a new show to be performed in the coming months. You should go! If for no other reason than to witness "The Calamari Sketch", a wonderfully sick little gem from Chris Sullivan's twisted mind. (I had not been to a group "meeting" in several months and this was the first new sketch I was presented with when I met up with the other Hall members last Saturday. Perverse. Unsettling. And in terribly bad taste. What comedy is all about.)
And yes, I do sport the porn 'stache again. But this time it is for a role in a play. Though, I have to say, I am growing to like it. It has completely made me persona non grata. I walk the streets and get disapproving looks from people all the time now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
