KingLou Drops Science 2.0

Yesterday was Maira's wake. It was rough as you might imagine. Lots of crying and hugging. I took the day off and took Ace down to the funeral home in the Bronx early since I would have to take him home early. Ace was awesomely well behaved and as usual he was very popular. The wake itself was standard until it started getting later and then the religious contigent started standing and testifying and singing songs in the middle of their sentences. That was when I decided it was time to leave.

One of the surprise guests at the way was the mother of my childhood friend, David Salazzo. I haven't seen his mom in like 15 years or longer. She was very nice to talk to. She really liked Ace and it brought back all these awful memories to her about how mischievious I was as a child. She was like "Look at the devious look. He looks just like you." She kept mentioning stories about horible things I had done as a child. I apparently locked her out of her apartment once and also brought and entire bookshelf down on her son and myself. I also sent her son to the hospital one time. It was a fond walk down Lou's guilt ridden past. When it was time to leave I gave her a ride home to the same apartment that I locked her out of 30 year ago. On the way there we say a stumble junkie looking all crazy. I mentioned that strange uneasy walk they seem to have and she asked me "Did you ever use?" which totally caught me off guard. Since I haven't I said so but it was a strange question coming from someone I haven't seen in 20 years or more.

Burial was today. Drove out back to the Bronx and said my final goodbyes. We got in the car and drove to the mystery cemetery in New Jersey. Maria has taken care of all that stuff before her passing so everything was pre-arranged. So two hours plus later we arrived at a Cemetary somewhere very south in NJ. I guess she died a little early for the cemetary because we arrived to a dirt lot instead of a lush green field. It was literally barren clay with a huge hole dug in it by a backhoe for her coffin. This was about 100 feet from actual grass and dirt to be buried in. So we all stood in raw tan clay and sand an said our final farwells. Maria's minister, she had become a Pentecostal follower in her final years, gave a short little firey speech about her. In every speech he gave he kept saying that when she was in the plane she was already so close to God that he decided to take her. There was another woman there from the same church who would say a concurrent prayer to the one the minister was giving so there was this doppler double talk action which was kind of distracting. Also distracting was the fact that about 100 yards behind us was some crazy construction crew installing fire hydrants with big industral diggers nad cranes. So the whole time we were there and trying to be somber there was all this diesel engine groaning and clank klang krang going on.

After we finished say the final goodbye we all kind of milled aroubnd trying to figure out what to do. A backhoe drove up and they attached Maria's coffin to it with some straps. Then much to my amazement they used the backhoe to lift up her coffin and lower it into the hole. It was probably the weirdest thing I have seen at a burial. The cemetray staff wanted us to leave but we were still just saying goodbye to people who were leaving. I guess we stayed too long because the backhoe fired up again and started shoveling dirt into the hole. It was pretty nuts and not very respectful if you ask me.

On the way home we used the Garmin to find an alternate route back to Brooklyn. One that didn't involve going through Manhattan. My brother got the GPS to get us home through Staten Island which was way faster than going back through the tunnels into Manhattan the across the bridge. I love the GPS.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I just wanted to pass along the information that the woman who basically raised me and my brother passed away this weekend at the age of eighty. She apparently had a heart attack on her plane flight home from her most recent vacation trip. She had been visiting Spain where I am sure she had a good time.

Now it's not surprising that an 80 year old woman has died but Maria was one of those women who you just thought would be around forever. I may mangle this timeline so forgive me. She was originally my grandparents housekeeper in Puerto Rico. My parents moved back and to PR and they had me. When my parents decided to move to New York somehow it was decided that she would come, too. And she brought her only son, Luis. Yeah, Luis and I shared the same name but for some reason he was called Luisito, which is the diminutive nickname for our name. So it must have been fun for him to have me, a 4 year old at the time, calling him Lil' Luis.

Anyway, she lived with our family for as long as I can remember. She was always down the hall. Even after she retired years ago and moved out to live in her HUD apartment she would still come to my moms house and lord over the new crop of nannies and housemaids. She was always a favorite of the building staff. Offering them lunches and place to chill during their shifts. She was always looking out for me in overly protective ways. I recall famously she once told me not to go the pizza place wearing my sunglasses because they were the style that the gangsters prefer and that I would get shot. These were $5 sunglasses I bought on the street. She was always worrying. Always disappointed in my Spanish. Always overreacting to things. All annoying at the time and now greatly missed.

I feel the guilt now of not having been in touch with her more as she got older. My only encounters with her were when I would stop by moms house to get mail or the occasional emergency bathroom break. Luckily she got to spend some time with Ace on a few occasions before she passed away. Here are some great pics of her from Ace's last birthday.





I'm kind of choked up at the moment so I'll just end it here.

we were recently talking with Ace about skin color and he was saying everyones color. When he got to me he said I was brown. This kind of caught me off guard since I usually don't consider myself brown or even tan. Typically no one ever guesses that I have any Hispanic heritage. Usually people guess that I am Jewish. But thats just because I control a bank and have horns. Oh how I make myself laugh with the racism.

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I made my first ever podcast this week. I interviewed the guy who runs the Providence Improv Festival overy skype and edited it clunkily in FCP. You can listen to it here. I am hoping to do some more interviews soon.

Saw the trailer for the new Rambo yesterday on YouTube. It looks typically terrible except that it's a total splatter gore fest. In the trailer Rambo lops a dudes head clean off, takes over the truck mounted machine gun the dead guy was manning and turns it on the driver of the truck. The 50. cal totally obliterated the dude head and covered the machine gun with head goo. He also machettes a due in the side and blood pours out. And of course it takes place in Burma and peaceful missionary type people and bad brown people. Might be I mistaken for one of them? Did I mention that it also features the likeliest battle field weapon? Thats right a very very accurate bow and arrow. Totally appropriate for a frantic battle.

Ace finally got into a school. It's a Greek Orthadox school and its crazy cheap. Unfortunately after we got enrolled there were called by one of our dream schools which had an opening and wanted Ace. It was one of Jodi's big hopes to send him to that school. But it was $7k more a session so we decided that it was best to keep Ace at the Greek Orthadox school. Ace's girlfriend is going there, too. It made Jodi very sad that were weren't sending him to the other school but I am hoping that his less expensive Pre-K experience doesn't totally ruin his entire life.

The Public Radio Quest is winding down. I feel lucky because I have 50 comments on my audio sample. Thats a lot compared to others. I just hope that some of those people are voting 5 stars! I just read the way they are choosing. 9 people will be chosen by the judges and 1 person is picked by the public. We're coming down to wire. e-fingers crossed.

I've gotten into the Halo 3 Beta which I guess is ending next week. I've been enjoying a lot. The new weapons and maps are pretty awesome. It's definitely whetting the appetites for more. Going back to Halo2 will be like taking a class over again. September is pretty close isn't it?

I hate Serendipity. It lost yet another entry. Said I had a bad password when I tried to save a draft. Lost all my work yet again.

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Last weekend Jodi, Ace and I drove up to pay a visit to Guy, Rebecca and their 10 month old, Ames in their lovely house in upstate New York. Guy gave me directions on how to get there but I wanted to try out the GSP I got for my birthday. It was interesting because the GPS kept making us get off and then back on the route that Guy suggested. Eventually we go to the mountain but it maybe took an extra 15 minutes.

Guy & Rebecca's house is a nice little farm house that they are doing some minor additions to. They joked that it was haunted but then got creeped out when Ace started talking about some guy up at the top of the stairs that he wanted to talk to. It was CREEPY!

We went to a small town organic store to pick up some supplies. Classically they run out of stuff that people want like its soviet era store. People kept coming in a saying "Oh great they are out of spinach" or whatever. One thing they had plenty of was rotten tomatoes and soggy jalapenos. Not many people clamouring for those.

When it finally came time for dinner we decided that getting dinner might be the best choice. Guy suggested that we try the local mexican restaurant. It was Cinco de Mayo after all. I was actually kind of disappointed that we weren't greeted with a Cinco de Mayo salute when we went in. The restaurant itself was an amazing space. I looked like some old-school important building converted into a lovely eatery with super high cielings. The food was "eh" but thats pretty much the rule for Mexican food made for non-mexicans. It was bland but Guy knew enough to order some chipotle sauce to save the day. The margaritas were very nice.

After an uneasy night of being concerned about Ace seeing dead people we woke and Guy made a nice slow cooked egg dish. We went for a walk on the property and across the rode to see some horses and chickens at the local ranchy place. After that we drove up to Guy's sisters house in the mountains.

The ride home was uneventful. We followed Guy's directions home and just used the GPS to check against them. It was very useful!

First sketch meeting - I wrote my first sketch for the show that I was asked to write for. I don't know if it'll get in but I kind of like it. Read it here -> BARACK OBAMA'S SECRET SERVICE I like it alot actually. It's silly.

I also got in on the Halo 3 Beta. Good Bye Life.

Riding to work this morning I saw Lester Holt shooting the breeze with some site surveyor guys. I wondered if he was asking them about the two plans that were just submitted to the city to build something horrible (I assume) on the Pier 40 site which is currently a soccer field. It actually used to be the last ditch place to dump Fedex in the city when I worked in post-production 8 years ago. Many nights I had to race my bike over there and drop packages off for some dumb project. That was in the days before the West Side bike path was really done. There were no lights the whole way in either direction. I kind of liked it. Almost no one rode the path back then. Now Lester Holt, member of the Black Crusaders (watch 30 Rock to get that joke) rides his bike there in the mornings.

Then on the way home I saw Adam Yauch and some spritely asian lady riding the opposite direction as I approached the Chelsea Piers. What a star studded bike ride!

Throw in seeing Ira Glass at some midtown bar last month and I better start thinking about carrying an autograph book. Does anyone do that anymore? I guess so. It just seems dated...

I rode my bike to work every day this week. My legs are so beat. Walking is hard. Glad we're heading out of the city for the weekend. We're actually taking the car out of the city for the first time. Up to Guy & Rebecca's country house. Kind of exciting. Of course being in the country makes me nervous. No internet! How will I prove people wrong with out my handy internets!?

I continue to get some nice comments on my audio piece on the Public Radio Talent Quest. I have my fingers crossed about this. I would really dig that opportunity.

In other opportunities I just got asked to join the writers of a new sketch show. I am really pleased with that. I haven't flexed my funny muscle for too long.

Finally I know it's from last week but I love me some Weng Weng