Friday, October 07, 2005

This Afternoon is Gonna Suck

Two hours of volleyball last night on a hard, hard floor. Hyperextended a knee. Three beers, two wings, a slice of pizza. Five hours of sleep. And after staggering through the morning I just had a fish sandwich along with mac and cheese for lunch. I tried to resist--I was weak. Now I have to someone slog through four hours here at my desk with the head bobs and my eyelids heavy as ingots.

A quick shoutout to my buddy Oy, as it's his birthday today. He's getting a great present, too--knee surgery. Ah, getting old is wonderful. I've known him since the first grade, if you can believe that. Can't get rid of the bastard. On me like white on rice.

That's a line from the book "Carlito's Way", and I know there was just a straight-to-DVD movie called "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power", which should not be confused with the film "Carlito's Way" starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn. That movie, made in the early nineties, is actually based on "After Hours", which is the second book Edwin Torres wrote about Carlito Brigante. If you like gangster/mobster/crime stuff, check it out. Get the audio book--Torres reads it himself, and he's fantastic. Haven't heard if the new flick is any good (Sean Combs is in it, and it was never released in theaters, raising a couple of red flags). The De Palma "Carlito's Way" was pretty good, especially Penn.

I've listened to the audio book so many times I should just steal the damn thing and pay the fine. Get me started with the first chapter and I could probably recite the whole thing line-by-line.

"I always knew I was bad, but I didn't know I was slick. At this time I totally re-did my image. A white Lincoln, a pad on the East Side. And none of that zoot-suit shit. Conservative-cut clothes, tiny watch, tiny cufflinks..."

It's funnier to hear Torres read it. Oy and I play that line back and forth all the time when we have to go someplace nice. "Tiny watch, tiny cufflinks".

Back to work. Four bloody hours.

posted by Gene @ 12:37 PM   |