Archive | June, 2010

Who Could Be Scared of a Jeffrey?

8 Jun

At the beginning of Get Him to the Greek, Sergio (Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy), an executive at a big-time record label, is yelling at his staff, who are trying to come up with a “game changer” idea that will help the label and maybe even save the entire industry. Aaron (Jonah Hill) has a crazy thought: What if we focused on the music? After all, isn’t that why they all got into the business in the first place?

It seems Aaron’s all-time favorite singer performed at L.A.’s legendary Greek Theatre 10 years earlier. Aaron thinks it would be great if they could get him back on that stage and have him revisit the site of his greatest show.

Of course, the idea is dismissed. When this scene was taking place, I started to smile: Was Get Him to the Greek going to be a great commentary on the state of the music business? Ha. Don’t be so silly. Continue reading →

Celebrating My Double Life

7 Jun

Among MOTs, the number 18 has great significance.

The word for “life” in Hebrew is “chai” (pronounced more like “hi” than like the kind of tea). The two Hebrew letters that make up the word “chai” have the numerical values of 8 and 10, so “chai” equals 18.

As a result, on special occasions like weddings and bar/bat bitzvahs, many Jews like to give gifts in denominations of 18.

In keeping with that idea, today, on my 36th birthday, I’m celebrating double chai — or in English, my double life.

No, I’m not outing myself here as a secret agent or a superhero, or revealing some deep, dark secret about myself. I’m just saying that lately, I’ve felt like I’ve been living a bit of a double life.

Some days I’m happy as a clam, stress-free, and optimistic. A joker. A guy who likes to have a good time and make other people smile. That’s the Martin that most people see, and that I’d prefer people know me as.

But in true Gemini style, I’ve also got another side of my personality that’s, well, not those things. And too often this year I’ve felt bored, frustrated, lonely, annoyed, and just plain old down. Continue reading →

Changing Over

6 Jun

I spent a good chunk of the last day of my 35th year doing what any other good straight male would do: I changed over my closet from winter to summer. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) I kinda had to do this, now that the temperatures have gotten consistently warmer and all. An unfortunate truth about my condo is that my closets are too small to keep all my clothes upstairs. But the other truth is that I’m a bit of a pack rat (as has been well documented on this blog), so every now and then it’s good for me to go through my stuff, see what I’ve been hanging on to for way too long, and just get rid of anything I haven’t worn or that’s weathered and old. You’d be surprised at how many shirts and sweaters I just never wore all winter, despite thinking I would. Or how many of the same color shirts I owned. And some things I just wore too often and needed to get rid of them. And, I’ve been buying some new clothes lately that I needed to make room for.

I guess deep down, I wanted to do this today because I thought there was something metaphorical about cleaning up and renewing myself, and purging some old and unwanted belongings, the day before I turn another year older. And what the hell — yes, I also thought I’d get a blog post out of it (and given how few and far between they’ve been lately, that was a bonus).

Cliches and cheesiness aside, it felt good to do this. Not only did I get rid of a bunch of shirts, tshirts, and sweaters, but I also cleaned my apartment in the process and got in some exercise (walking a heavy tub up and down the stairs to and from my storage unit wasn’t easy). And, another bonus, I have a nice donation to make to an organization like Big Brothers Big Sisters.

So now I’m sitting here in a cleaner apartment, with less than I had at the start of the weekend, and I’m feeling good about waking up in the morning.

Welcome Home, Old Friend

5 Jun

The crowd was justifiably loud when Conan O’Brien took the stage Friday night at the start of his first Boston show on the Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.

This was the former Tonight Show host’s first paying gig in his hometown (he grew up in Brookline, if you didn’t know), and after more than three months off the air, we who love Coco were eager for some of his goofy Irish charm.

Conan brought that and more in a show that was eager to please, even if it maybe ran on a little too long. Continue reading →

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