Mount Sinai Hospital in Queens

I have had one of those weekends... Well this weekend was one of those weekends. Friday was nice Went and saw a ridiculous overacted play called Mastiphicus Meglodon. It was funny... but when it got overly serious I had to bite my tongue to keep from hysterically laughing. I haven't seen anything like this since the Armory Free Theater in Champaign Urbana.

http://www.nativealiens.org/

Well saturday morning my knee completely crapped out on me. I was in agony for a day... decided against going to the ER on Sunday because I could find no record of my account with the insurance company. Good idea too, cause there was a problem... But it was taken care of thanks to the wonderful people I now work with.

My trip to the ER was pitiful however. I went to mount Siani of Queens. In the ER I dealt with an overberring woman who greets you... very concerned with people getting hit by an opening door. When I finally got back to get the X-ray taken I waited while one woman kept saying the person who would do my X-ray would be right back. 15 minutes later a woman came in, the other left , and a third came in to gossip about the first one. Very professional. I got the X-ray... at one point the lady shoved on my busted knee to move it in position which is infuriating. You'd think that someone who does this for a living would know not to push on people's damged limbs.

Then I saw a PA... who was clearly not ready to work with an informed patient. She started by telling me that "there are these strings which connect your bones called ligaments." It was like ER meets Sesame Street. "I read your X-ray and you have nothing broken... so you have a knee sprain."

I responded, "Well and X-ray only tells you about the knee being broken, you would need to do an MRI to determine whether or not it was sprained, or their was a ligament tear, or a cartilage tear. Do you have an MRI?"

"No we don't have an MRI" this PA said with a look of a deer in the headlights. She went on to give me a Rx strength ibuprofen (she made a big deal of this medication... I informed her the same effect can be achieved by taking 3 regular strength). Then she gave me script for 6 Vicoden, put a knee brace on me upside down and crooked, and then invited me to stand on the busted leg, wincing in pain I sat back down.

All in all I would say that they were incompetent. note: when I got a copy of my X-rays yesterday I had to go to their MRI department to get them.

Anyway if you know me... I can't bear weight on my left leg due to a "locked knee," I will need Arthroscopic surgery, and I've missed three concerts in the last week.

Doveman

I have nothing but the most glowing words to say about Doveman, whom I saw at the Mercury Lounge on Sunday. Fronted by Thomas Bartlett they play a slow, quiet, haunted music. It's pretty much just fucking beautiful. The covers they played were fantastic. They channeled Neil Young in a cover of Only Love Can Break Your Heart... a Neil Young circa the early eighties when he was messing around with a synthesizer...

Go here and listen to some... You'll be glad you did.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2005/09/doveman_does_ma.html

Nerds! (Ra Ra Riot and Bear Hands)

Saw Ra Ra Riot at the Bowery last night. The were really good... A bunch of silly nerds playing up tempo post college music. Hailing from Syracuse... sounding like they are from that Montreal scene.. they impressed. The lead singer has a high pitched heart of his sleeve sort of voice. Everyone else looks like band geeks from high school. For some reason I like the nerd bands. They are a six piece, guitar/keyboards, bass, cello, violin, drums and vocals. Play an upbeat sounding high energy light rock.

My favorite thing had to be the Hounds of Love cover they pulled out for an encore.
http://hypem.com/track/368166

They stuck around to play a song they'd played all ready for an encore... which is just kinda lame. If you don't have another song ya kinda have to go.

Openers bear hands (My girlfriend and I both agreed that they needed to change the name Bear Claw... seemed far more appropriate) were really good, provided you did not turn around to see the 4 kids on stage act like rock stars. Particularly pleasant was the Bass player's propensity to cock his head back and spit up fountains of phlegm into the air... which I would imagine made someone uncomfortable. It was kind of funny, cause if I were a kid I would have loved these guys... they just looked so silly to my older eyes.

Lastly this show had a crowd that was very young and very, very ugly... I haven't seen a show this ugly since elf power @ the knitting factory.
Euck. Ugly.

Ideals fall victim to fashion

I bought new glasses... So now to go with my ever increasing mess of a hair style I have some thick rimmed indie glasses. But I have done the unthinkable... I bought prada. I remember being new to new york and unemployed. To amuse myself I did some odd things. I used to go to the prada store on Madison ave. wearing my rattiest flannel covered in stains. I would have a bag of chips in my hand and would messily eat them as I walked in... clearly covering my hands in grease. Then I would reach out and try to touch ridiculously expensive crap and watch the sales person freak out. I would eventually be asked to leave...

Oh well, now I have some cool glasses... I just wish I could scratch the prada label off the side.