one thing today

Happy crowd. 84% black, brown, latino, asian. amazing. young, young. Steamy afternoon. Cold shower asap inside the door. Love my water pressure and my millions of sweet  peeps.  

  Saturday … the two things I miss the most -  the breeze/wind thru rooms, livening everything and everyone.   And saying hello/greeting everyone you pass - easy short, may be superficial exchange but it does something to you inside, especially in your mind. nice. miss.  

  Hello Perry family -   This is my fifth full June out here - many changes even in that time. Covid and post … and fashion - the boys wear speedos now - but still and always - scores of close encounters of the lovely kind. All kinds of big blues and yellows and friendliness and long sun days - but the time seems short. I love your fathers ceramics/pottery. So good and personal and warm. Thank you for the loan. Lets do it again as the world grows harsher but this place stays modest and beautiful.  

  final Thursday … a wild, loud downpour at two in the morning last night. Got up and ate a chicken thigh and apple sauce. the dream again - dark somewhere in Brooklyn and I am in need of refuge. Brian heard my yelling and screaming and then, before he decided to get up - I stopped.   this shoe has been alone at the top of the stairs to the beach for half of my stay. one shoe lost? there must be a story there. The Philly Dads and their brood of tiny kinds like itchy crows made me think of a book we had when we were young .  THE FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND HOW THEY GREW UP.    I was kinda proud that we beat them by one - six of us kids - moving along and getting taller with better vocabularies.   watched Baby Reindeer - good

 

  watched a Bruce Boss tik tok last night. he was on tour in St Louis and went to a movie by himself. a cute teenage couple asked him if he'd like to sit with them - and then asked if he'd come home with them to meet his parents. he said sure ... mom didn't recognize him at first, the kid went into his room and came back with an album of his and his mom said - let me make you some eggs.  Nestled is the word for this house. Nestled in the dunes. You can no longer be here. You have to be back a ways. I'm not a grandfather - but this place is. 

  Rough rough waves today, more of the 5 kids who run round like happy crows and their 2 hot dads on the beach. a blueberry cobbler awaits us after a pork chop, aspagarus and watermelon/feta salad. first time its been hot in this house during the last five years we've been here. evan hunters book is pretty good. I can't play Karen any sad or slow or lonely music. She's a new widow and I am an old teaser so I really gotta keep all the urge in check locked down tight. I am/feel one day behind. It feels like Sunday. I was ahead of myself when I first got here this year. every day is different - the light and time and wind and greenery. 

A rainbow cloud can occur because of something called cloud iridescence. Iridescent clouds happen because of diffraction – a phenomenon that occurs when small water droplets or small ice crystals scatter the sun's light.

   ...of 2024, also known as the “Strawberry Moon,” made a stunning appearance in evening skies on Friday and signaled a change in the seasons. It coincided with the beginning of astronomical summer north of the equator and the start of winter south of the equator, but also marked a rare “major lunar standstill” not seen since 2006.

  The full moon dark night sky while I listen to Ray Charles and Johnny Mathis sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It is perfect time, life, now.   If I owned this place, I’d go outside and snatch some leaves and go to the paint store and try to match it and paint the big room the same color but it has to do with the light hitting at different times of day and that might be difficult but possible and then the inside would blend in with the shrubs and stuff in the middle of this dune house - with the sand and birds and deer, bunnies, foxes.

Coffee on Beach read news/ write journal & blog Breakfast Read Beach Nap write/music Drink   Tv Bed

  THE FAVORITE SWEATER or … Arash, Mark and Paul Make A Shorty Foggy Night. Ext of a beach bar. Music blasts. Lights flash. People yell to each other.   ALL ( off camera ) Goodnight. See you tomorrow. Stay safe.   CU of boardwalk planks.   High heel shoes walk into the frame. The walking grows increasingly wobbly.                                                   GIRL Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.  Fuck!  Shit!   She proceeds.  A sweater sleeve dangles at the side of her leg. She becomes less and less steady. A deer watches her. She drops her purse. The contents spill out onto the walkway. She clumsily scoops them up, walks on and then traces her last footsteps to find her lost shoe. She puts it back on and pivots shakily. She struggles with a latched, waist high, squeaky, wooden gate. In TIGHT CLOSEUP, droplets on the hinges glisten. The walkway gets steeper, the sweater falls to  the ground. She picks it up and steps onto the porch. She throws

 

  … reading a fab collection of short stories by the fab carmen maria machado. she knows how to sling a story and be very intimate, vulnerable, rock ‘em sock’em robots … we had a fine meal last night, grilled steak and veggies and sheet cake    …   I walk to see if Asa is round and his hetero-no -more-ex wife tells me he’s in water for elephants  on Broadway so he’s only here on Mondays. This was after we go two blocks over to see a beach wedding. Word is one of them is a movie star    - I think their names are David and Brady. I told two young girls that it was Bradley Cooper and Gigi H and they almost pooped in their pants. I love to lie sometimes. The reactions are so big and fun sometimes. Left over kid stuff. 

Coffee on the beach morning.  The Rich Guy Next Door  is early on his desktop perch making $$$ and  The Sad Man Whose Little Dog Hates the Beach  says good morning kinda begrudgingly as always. A dog walker tells me his frankfurter dogs name is Ringo.   As in Starr?   Yes.   They have similar noses.   A dead baby shark washed up on the beach and smelled from a really long way off.   To paraphrase bobby z … Too much contemplation Can make a man feel   ill at ease tiny little whitecaps cap far out  all over the all over and  some of them turn into seagulls

  Ran into Barbie John. Asked him how went the art fair over the weekend and mentioned when I saw him the other day with Robin Byrd - I recalled when - 40 years ago - I worked with her on our show Good Morning Mr. Orwell  on New Years Day.   She stripped at the same time as a girl in Japan and when Robin tossed of a piece of clothing, it landed in Tokyo. Thats what we called a Friday in 1984.  

 

  Cherry Grove, has a year-round population of fifteen people. In the summer, the population - two thousand. It would be great to do a doc about the people who live here yearlong.   What do they do? Do they have potluck dinners? Whats the best part of their 365 life here? The worst? Why do they ... and is there a how? I’ve met two guys - Warren the great,old hippie and his even older man.   I google … warren all year resident in cherry grove. He photographs deer mostly.   Warren Boyd Wexler is a year-round resident of Fire Island, and a friend of this paper. His nature photography is a reflection of his strong bond to this island. And then I goggle his full name.  Warren is one of the eight people living year-round in the wonderful little town of Cherry Grove. His photography has sold globally, and has become a staple, in the form of postcards, note cards, and framed works, in every one of the seventeen towns on Fire Island, for the last twenty-five years. I stare down the beach and li

6:48 seems to be the perfect time out here on perfect days.  I looked up the definition of schlub. It’s not what I thought it meant. It’s a clumsy, stupid person . I thought it meant a messy, out of shape dishevelled guy.    After nine days here, I’ve seen my fill of them a nd I don’t want to tell tired tall tales about walking miles to school in blizzards - or in my day yadda yadda   … but … in my day the boys tended to be on the 70s don’t have a lot of money to eat good and I'd rather spend it on beer so that's why I'm super lean ... side. If they didn’t have any muscle on their bones … a whole lot of them had great shiny shaggy hair and a litheness about them that made them delectable. They’re big as a mailbox now or just … I don’t know … there’s an aesthetic lack that is a sorry thing before my eyes.  This old man by the sea sees a sea change from a half sentury ago.

...  is on the beach again. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amanda brought one with her the next time she’s out. Big waves crashed while I ate a decent meal this morning and I changed up what I’m reading and hope   for change today.  A week in and three to go and I wonder about things. This may be the first day I’ve ever typed on the beach.   6:49   A better day - read a better book and fell beach asleep 3/4 of the way. Talked to my sister Suzanne. Always good. Listening to Samuel Barber and thinking about time passing.   

woke up from a nap and thought it was raining. A battalion of fire fighters was testing big hoses at the end of the walk by the beach. The three women seemed to be the most enthusiastic. Learn that poem kinda day.  The character in the book I am reading in demoralized   by his solitude. Maybe I'll shave.

A friend and I talked about crazy stuff our parents did that drove us crazy. Long ago, when we were bringing my sister home from open heart surgery, my mother was the last one out of the room. She took the packet of two saltines off her lunch tray.  My friend said -  Well, you know, I’ve always thought the crackers in those little two packs have more flavor than the other ones.  

  Tuesday … the 4th now … this view from the porch in my eyes. that deep blue sea they always sing about is deep blue all day. And the sound it makes, a soft and modest and timeless purr, everlastingly right and classy. There is so much melody about and I may join it during this June joyful.  I think I feel myself dropping the steeled feel here now.  Life is weird and wonderful and anything else you can all it and more.

  I get a text from Nancy. She is out in the Atlantic on her cousins sailboat. She says she’ll be in front of the cottage in a short while.   And i n a short while I get a text that she’s two miles out in front of my porch. I wave to the boat I think may be theirs and text her and ask if she saw me waving. She answers Yup and I’m not sure whether or not I believe her but I think I do.  

Brian left on the early ferry and I told him I might grow to be like the Learn That Poem kid in the Little Rascals … who gets suspended from school but has no fun cause there’s no one to have any fun with … and he has to recite a poem when he returns to school so he spends all his free time walking along the railroad track with learn that poem, learn that poem repeating in his head. hmmm. We shall see.   This is the second morning with lots of boats napping out in the water   - don’t remember that being the case in prior summers.   A year ago to the day … I wrote   a rabbit scratches his back in the dune … like he can’t really reach the spot but he was going to give it a better than good try.  I saw a cat yesterday early evening that I mistook for a mountain lion- so big was hard to believe. So big.