April 19, 2015

Nearly a month has passed since I returned to Rockaway. I am still getting used to not having a kitchen or cooking devices, and paying more than half my income in rent (with the lower rent option in Jersey City negated by the more than doubling of non-car-owning transportation expenses). Somehow this part of Rockaway is still safe. There aren't any large scale shooting incidents or breakdowns here like what is happening in the Bronx and Brooklyn under De Blasio's rule. I have been working on writings for the workshop (which I have to submit via e-mail due to my new job) and for potential musical projects. After all, Rockaway is where my electronic music career began.

And in atypical blog discussion, I am trying to determine which bird flew into Rockaway last week (pictured above). I have seen the various seagulls and related sea birds that are normally found in this area as well as this weird bird that looks somewhat like a seagull but with a longer and more pointed colored beak. I have yet to see any piping plovers since I moved back. Supposedly it will be next year before work starts on the section of the boardwalk that connects Beach 115th Street to Shore Front Parkway due to research on the plovers. But there is the chance that the plovers are still pissed about that song I wrote about them last year...

March 27, 2015

My first new blog of the year was composed in a place I never thought I'd be again. New York, or more specifically, my now seemingly permanent home neighborhood of Rockaway Park, Queens. And for the 4th straight year, I spent a good part of Lent in a homeless shelter. But I ended up in the shelter (in Jersey City, NJ, of all places) after getting into a disagreement with the super/resident manager of my Salvation Army-owned transitional housing in Colorado Springs. That led to me being evicted with 10 minutes warning and being blacklisted from the city's main shelter. After getting thrown out and threatened with arrest if I stepped foot on Salvation Army property without approval, I went to Marian House, the main low-income/homeless information center in Colorado Springs. After rejecting their suggestions of relocating to Portland or Seattle, I took a Greyhound back to New York and ended up in New Jersey when my now seemingly permanent residence didn't have any rooms available. One finally became available on the 25th of March, and I moved back with the unemployment I had accumulated while in the shelter. And after about 20 interviews and 19 rejections, I got hired by Urban Express, which means next week I will be a foot messenger again, albeit one paid slightly above NY's minimum wage and making about twice what I did in my last messenger gig.

So now, it's back to the beach and back to delivering on the streets of Manhattan. And (in a somewhat repeat of Lent 2013 and 2014) back to creative artistic pursuits- namely a writers' workshop run by the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen. Hopefully some of the pre-work stuff I submitted can get published.

January 30, 2014

While I am still unemployed but housed, I have been on a bit of a creative streak. Since the second underpaid stint at Mitchell's ended on January 24, I came up with a song (1099) that blasts their pay structure and other businesses moving to that pay structure to avoid paying the new $8 per hour minimum wage. Over the last couple of days, I went to slightly less incendiary lyrical topics- the piping plovers who are holding the Rockaway Boardwalk hostage (Piping Plovers) and Governor Cuomo, Mayor De Blasio, and other ACORN/Working Families politicians who think pro-life, pro gun Catholics have no business being in New York (Heaven, Hell, and Rockaway- Coda).


And here are the lyrics below to those songs:
1099- by Thomas Clarke

Minimum wage, we've got a way around that... You've heard me talk about the 1099 before but here's why it's such a threat to the poor For 1099, you're supposed to be a subcontractor setting your own pay, setting your own hours Getting commission on something that's supposed to pay a decent wage It was never designed to be a way for employers to enslave and impoverish employees under the guise that they're just independent contractors But that's what it's become in New York City It's not working, get it right and fix it $8 an hour might be too high to be the minimum but for $5 an hour for twice as much work for overtime hours with no overtime pay is too little And it's not just the milkman messengers from Long Island City (Mitchells) that are doing this How about some inedible fruit arrangements from Manhattan with a legal wage the reward after months of 5 an hour? How about the big kahuna of messenger companies (Urban Express) that switched to low commission and no tax help after paying above the old minimum wage last year? Nobody seems to know or care and they think the ones getting paid a legal wage are the only ones getting screwed Some think that more pay with benefits is too little and some think that the taxpayers are their piggy bank Why should they get one penny more when there are people earning far less, working a lot more and not getting a legal wage? Fix the 1099 gap so those trapped in it can get a legal wage fix the healthcare system but not by forcing people to buy insurance and driving those premiums through the roof fix poverty by helping the poor become not poor instead of punishing them by making them or keeping them poor The leftist ideas from before didn't work then and they are making stuff worse now Quit making stuff too expensive Quit overtaxing the rich when their money can alleviate some of the suffering and they can move their money with them Leaving those who cannot afford the bill the only ones who can pay for it. Quit saying life and self defense and religion are part of the problem and not welcome When they may be part of the solution The 1099 perps aren't the only problem the jackasses need to go too get it right before the wrong type of revolution comes and heads start rolling and no one wins it's not working, get it right and fix it

Piping Plovers lyrics (c) 2014 by Thomas Clarke

we fly across the waves without much ease we look cute when we strut and when we feed we look cute, but don't mess with us we're the piping plovers we migrate west, we like the upper crust we trot across the beach so cute and so free we look cute, but don't misjudge us we milk "endangered" for all it's worth we look cute, but don't mess with us we'll get our gull goons after you we look cute, but don't mess with us we're the piping plovers we left our nests on the ghetto beach we claimed it was because of Sandy we look cute, but don't misjudge us Don't think you're getting your new boardwalk anytime soon Not until you pay for our new beachfront property! we look cute, but don't mess with us we're the piping plovers don't mess with us we'll get our EPA lawyers after you we're the piping plovers think we should press FEMA for a new jacuzzi? no, let the pigeons pay for it from their tributes


Heaven, Hell, and Rockaway (Coda) Lyrics- (c) 2014

Trapped somewhere between Heaven, Hell, and Rockaway between what's left of America and Europe somewhere where the poor are getting poorer the Faith is under attack what used to be wrong is now right and what used to be right is now not welcome Somewhere in Rockaway the pigeons, seagulls, and piping plovers are fighting over food at the shore and the plovers are holding up the new Boardwalk until 2017! politicians are fighting over monetary food over how progressive they can be when they're really regressive who says someone being pro-life and wanting to defend oneself has no business being in New York? Maybe Cuomo, DeBlasio, and their ACORN and jackass buddies should leave New York instead! I'm to poor to live here comfortably............ Stuck somewhere between Heaven, Hell, and Rockaway and maybe somewhere between Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Texas if things don't work out here...... Who said I had to stick to one style? who said I had to leave things the way they were? it's a brave but messed up new world and I'm trying to adapt

November 5, 2013

22 years ago today, my mother died. About a year ago, I was in an evacuation shelter due to Hurricane Sandy. This year, I am still in Rockaway Park (after detours in Jamaica, Midtown, the west side of Colorado Springs, Downtown Austin, and Eureka Springs, Arkansas). I gained and lost 2 jobs. And now I am big into the music production stuff. Below is my latest song and the politically charged lyrics to it.
Lyrics- Get It Right (with appropriate photos)

Verse 1
New York is a guaranteed right to shelter city, but there are people who would rather sleep in the tunnels, train stations, and streets than go to the shelters in Austin there are 10 homeless people for every available homeless shelter bed and those that don't win the bed lottery are told to sleep outside knowing full well they can be arrested get it right

Verse 2
Obamacare passed solely on the votes of one party it claimed to help lower costs by forcing people to buy insurance Needing insurance when you're sick is the main problem with healthcare and they're doubling down on what is wrong and increasing costs for everyone

Verse 3

since 1973 over 50 million have died because of abortion yet many say infanticide is a god-given right guess they forgot about Doctor Gosnell and who planned parenthood was meant to control if Margaret had her way, Barry would never had been born

Verse 4

hey Bill hey Bill or is it Wilhelm? quit listening to the ACORNS and the nuts this city has enough well-intentioned problems without your nutty leftist friends making it worse

Verse 5

big city not so bright lights how could they confuse an OVH with an M400 breaking down after 6 years now they want to switch to L E D but they've only got one chance and 200 million to get it right and fix the lights

Verse 6
who would have thought that learning would become a money pit benefits for all those not learning everyone wants to teach but no one can afford to learn you think you should mortgage your future to learn the present

Verse 7
does it make sense to believe that stupid peacock when they blew up that truck and the truth west side alphabets are too flashy and the canine on 6th wants money for what should be free can't you see the truth

Verse 8

whats the difference between a patriot and a liar between waterboarding and public extortion whats a few trillion between friends and we'd rather know what Lindsay or Brad or what the fox says than the truth get it right MFers/scumbags get it right before it's too late

October 31, 2013

A little over a year has passed since Hurricane Sandy devastated my neighborhood of Rockaway Park. Since then, the flood waters have recessed, the boardwalk has been torn down, the rooming houses have reopened, and the beach sands have been raised a few feet.

But there is still beach erosion, unemployment, and a lot of businesses that never reopened. Since I managed to get unemployed again, I have been spending most of my free time until the rent money runs out on the laptop. The wifi is gone in my building, but the Seaside Library reopened (1 year to the day it got destroyed by Sandy) and my laptop is a weekday fixture there now. I finally figured out some of those DJ and music making programs, and I have created several songs, most of which can be found on my Soundcloud page. And this is the widget for my latest Halloween-themed song, Down....

August 18, 2013

Some things about Rockaway haven't changed....

And other things have changed significantly...

There are far fewer services here now there were 10 months ago. Both Key Foods are gone, the burn area at Rockaway Beach Blvd is now a cleared, empty lot, and most of the Boardwalk west of Arverne is no more. The commute is still long, and rents are still cheap by NYC standards (although higher than what I was paying pre-Sandy). But it is weird how in the last 9 months I went from NYC to Colorado Springs to Austin to Eureka Springs to the NYC shelter system and ended up back in Rockaway and back at a low paying delivery job.

August 10, 2013

The nearly 10 month Sandy relocation nightmare that started in late October is finally over. I am now living within 10 feet of where I used to live before that storm changed everything. If I didn't have a doctor's appointment in 1 hour and a lot of stuff left to move from storage and the shelter, I'd be enjoying the backyard beach right now. More to come when I have an extended time to write, since I have lost possessions, clothes, and my mind. The Austin move back in February turned into a 3 month stay at the Salvation Army shelter there. I was lucky- there are maybe 10-15 homeless people in Austin for each availble shelter bed there. I then got a church-sponsored bus ticket to NW Arkansas in late May, where I stayed near my Aunt Debbie who I hadn't seen in 15 years. And then on returning to NYC, I spent 2 months in the shelter system (mostly in Jamaica) and got 2 jobs after being unemployed for 9 months. As of this morning, I moved back to the building that as recently as December was still uninhabitable due to no heat or boiler.

November 5, 2012

Today is the 21st anniversary of my mother's death. I wonder how she would have reacted to horrors such as the Clinton Presidency, 9/11, her daughter living through Hurricane Katrina, and her son living through Hurricane Sandy.

I have spent over a week in evacuation shelters. A mandatory evacuation order was issued for my neighborhood of  Rockaway Park on October 28. Yesterday (November 4) was the first time I've been in the area since then, because I had to meet with a FEMA employee who inspected my residence in accordance with a disaster claim. Below is the front of my residence:

 

Afterwards, I walked toward the boardwalk, and saw:

The boardwalk was even worse:

There were several aid stations on my block, offering food, water, batteries, clothing, and even cellphone charging:

But the worst damage was on Rockaway Beach Blvd due to a fire that started October 29 and didn't end until November 1:

Due to no power and no heat (and the fact that the evacuation order has not been lifted yet), I am still in the OEM shelter system. It could be weeks or months before my building is safe to move into again, and even longer before the business district on Rockaway Beach Blvd is rebuilt.

Election endorsements won't be posted today, but it should surprise no one that I'm endorsing Romney for President in tomorrow's election. At least the NYC Board of Elections came to its senses and allowed early absentee voting for evacuated residents at each borough's board of elections office until 5PM today.

August 26, 2012

Today would have been my grandmother Hazel Clarke's 101st birthday. She was a very eccentric woman who probably had more influence on my life than my mother did. Grandma Hazel was very active until her final few months. She was extremely outspoken. She liked being around children- children at the mall, her 2 grandchildren, and her great-granddaughter Allie. I'm pretty certain she was the reason my parents had me so soon after they married- at the time, Grandma Hazel was 60 and had no grandchildren to brag about. She died 3 days after her 84th birthday, much younger than her older sister Doris (who died 4 years later at age 98) and her youngest sister Mollie (who died last November at age 92).

My father, her only biological child, died 4 months after she did, at age 60. Neither of them lived to see the 21st Century. My father thought it would be all computers and spaceships by now. He may have gotten the computer part right. There aren't as many room-size or desktop computers as there were in the late 1990s, but there are far more laptop computers- and smaller notebook computers- and even smaller tablet computers, which are used for reading as well as internet stuff. And now most cellphones could qualify as computers- especially I-phones and Android phones (whose Google-created OS uses the same basic premise as the Ubuntu Linux OS on which this blog is being written).

About 8 days ago, I found a dead shark near my residence (echoes of what my father caught while fishing at Jacksonville Beach some 65-70 years ago). Thankfully I didn't find any of that shark's relatives swimming near the beach yesterday. The waves were rough enough to knock me down a few times.

Last weekend, I ended my 9 month computer drought by purchasing a used laptop. I get free wi-fi in my building, and now I have time and means to put photos, blogs, updated family trees, and stuff online without being at the mercy of the local libraries. Now hopefully, I can start searching for better paying employment, less expensive housing (after beach season is over), and maybe find that special someone or reconnect with old friends. But I don't want to spend too much time online- like certain relatives who were completely computer illiterate when my grandmother and father were still alive.