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Sunday, October 22, 2017

The Writer's Life 10/22 - Glad & Sad

In an article in today's NY Post, Jonathon Trugman recalls Black Monday, 10/19/87, when the DJIA tanked 508 points to finish at 1738. He salutes the bold souls who bought into the crash. Since then, the S&P 500 has returned 2120% and the Dow sits at 23,328. I tried buying the bottom when the bank stocks took a dive post 2000, and the bottom went much lower.

According to an article in the Post, NYC lawsuit payouts now exceed a billion dollars.

Last night I watched a bit of Tarantula (1955) on the Svengoolie program, which runs on channel 33 on Cablevision in NYC. While the special effects weren't as seamless as what today's CGI produces, they were impressive. John Agar, Mara Corday and Leo G. Carroll were the stars. One of the supporting players, the late Nestor Paiva, has an impressive track record of appearances. I may have mentioned a bit of his history in a past blog, but in case I didn't: The son of Portuguese immigrants, the tenth of twelve children, he has 306 titles listed under his name at IMDb, remarkable given that he lived only until 61, when he succumbed to cancer. I'm sure his face, if not his name, will register with baby-boomers:



I fell asleep watching TV. I awoke at about two AM and saw happy news scrolling across the bottom of the screen: The Astros has beaten the Yankees and advanced to the World Series vs. the Dodgers. I thought Houston was dead after the Bombers drubbed them in all three games in the Bronx. Even after Justin Verlander came up aces in game six, I was sure the big bats would ravage Charlie Morton, who had a fine season but has been less than mediocre in his ten years in the big leagues. The day to day surprises in the long season are the most fascinating aspects of MLB. Unfortunately for the legion of Yankees haters, after off-season tweaks, the team should dominate the AL for at least the next five years. Houston and Cleveland will lose good players to larger markets, and the Red Sox seemed destined to resume their former role as second to their main rival. The most urgent order of business is acquiring a competent catcher and moving Gary Sanchez to full time DH, where he will be like the Mariner's Edgar Martinez, the best at that position of all-time. The Yankees' scouts should be in the Hall of Fame.

I encountered young, Romanian-born artist Andu on my morning walk. He was wearing a top hat. Even in the dark I saw the tears trickling from his eyes, which he wiped away. In his early thirties, he seems to be in an epic battle for sanity, unable to sleep as his mind races wildly. Bi-Polar, he believes God talks to him directly, and a whole lot of other stuff, most of it outrageous. We strolled along, chatting. I don't know if his problems were caused by drug abuse or if his condition is in his DNA. Perhaps the former exacerbated the latter. I wonder if Ol' Smoky, who's in his sixties, was the same way back in the day. Curiously, Andu says he understands O.S. perfectly whenever they converse. All I could do was listen. He answered a call on his Iphone along the way. I correctly assumed it was his mother. I'm ashamed to say I worried he might think I was an enemy conspiring against him and pounce on me or worse. When we parted at the corner of East 13th, I said: "Go home. I know your mom drives you crazy, but she loves you. No one will ever love you like she does." As I stepped away, my eyes started to glaze. Here's an example of his work:



It was a sad day at the floating book shop - only one sale. My thanks to the gentleman who bought a DVD, Katt Williams - The Pimp Chronicles Part 1. 
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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