Berkeley, Sunday May 14, 2007

The Apartment

I finished packing my internet orders at 11:30 pm and then I watched “I’ve Got a Secret" circa 1959 on the Game Show Network. After that I went to bed and seriously tried to sleep since tomorrow is a busy day, but the crack house next door was hopping.

Since they lost their dog Stoney to the SPCA they seemed to have increased the wattage on their front door light. The idiot upstairs, who always seems to be awake and trolling the floors while he peers out his windows, has increased his too. God forbid someone knock on either door because they will be blinded by the light. So between the two of them my bedroom is as bright as a jail yard at night. I have got to find another place to live as there will never be peace in my Funky Town.

Oakland, May 22, 2011

The Loft

Oh joy, it’s 7:30 pm and our neighbour Sonny is at it again!  I commend him for being the good brother and bringing his dear sister down from Oregon every year but do they have to make that ungodly racket? Right now all thirty of them are outside BBQing and being fairly quiet but I predict tonight the roof will blow off this building with the noise level.

11:00 P.M.

Steve came in and said that the dogs are running inside as soon as he opens the door because they are petrified of the noise outside. As I type this, the ceiling starts shaking and we have had a small earthquake. Even a real huge shaker cannot be any worse than if they choose to move the party inside. They light a few fireworks and we rush to shut the upstairs hatch before any fly in and start an unintended BBQ inside.

1:05 A.M.

I wake up and realize that they have now moved the party inside and I can hear the true ugliness of the punk songs they keep playing over and over. There is loud screeching going on in the halls and I have to pee. I am so tired I can’t get up, so maybe I should just lay here and blog about this. I have no pen and paper so I am mentally trying to remember things that I will have no clue about in the morning.

I fall in and out of sleep and fellow writer Margaret Feike appears to me in some sort of dream insisting I must write about all of this for history’s sake. Maybe Margaret should come here and see what she can get out of all of this.

The pipes in the upper ceiling start banging from the vibration of their dancing. The noise works up to a deafening level but miraculously Steve does not even wake up. Neighbours start yelling in the hall telling Sonny to shut up. Steve wakes up for approximately 3.5 seconds and asks me if he should get up and yell at them. Then I see him roll over and snore as Margaret Feike has probably told him to just forget it since Linda is blogging about it for history.

I hear police sirens in the distance but know they will not stop here as they have bigger fish to fry. Loud drums begin now accompanying some sort of “miked” music.  Steve is still sleeping and probably conferring things with Margaret in his dreams. Rumour has it that Sonny’s once popular punk band is coming out of retirement and going on a reunion tour. Please someone give them a record deal now!

I finally fall asleep at 2:30 am singing along to some old school punk song I hear in the distance and life is good again. I have memorized everything I want to blog about and realize once I wake up I will have no memory of anything but Margaret.

Sunday,2:30 PM

The hallways are now silent except for the  sounds of small wheels belonging to Sonny's little Red Flyer wagon.  I know he keeps it to haul empties to the recycling bin and bet the bin is overflowing. The party is finally over and I will be able to sleep tonight. World peace has once again come to Funky Town.

If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.

- Jimi Hendrix

 Photos and text: Linda Seccaspina 2011