so, tomorrow i leave for the uk and belgium and france and portugal. i'm looking forward to this for a few reasons.

so, tomorrow i leave for the uk and belgium and france and portugal. i'm looking forward to this for a few reasons.

one is that i like travelling and i like playing live and dj'ing. and the next 10 days will involve a lot of travelling and playing live (and a tiny bit of dj'ing).

and two: I GET TO MISS THE SAN GENARRO FESTIVAL. this might not mean much to you, as i don't know that anyone outside of the tri-state area knows about the san genarro festival. the san genarro festival started about 150 years ago in what was then little italy (so named as it was a small part of manhattan populated by italian immigrants). san genarro was an important festival (even showing up in the godfather with a young don corleone) for decades, as it had great cultural and religious significance for the italian immigrants who lived in the neighborhood. but then the italians moved out and the neighborhood was re-populated by chinese immigrants and latino immigrants and bald musicians with bad taste in clothes (aka-me). when i first moved to this neighborhood the san genarro feast lasted for about 3 days. and it sort of made sense, historically, as there were about 25 older italian-americans living in the neighborhood. unfortunately those older italian-americans have either died or moved to the suburbs to be with their grandkids. and unfortunately the san genarro feast has now become a 10 day festival. and, not to pull any punches, it's awful. i mean, truly awful. most people who live in the neighborhood leave during san genarro, as it's become so foul. originally it was italian immigrants celebrating italian culture. now it's drunks from the suburbs throwing up on the sidewalks and harassing the people who live here. it's gross. and this year I DON'T HAVE TO BE HERE. ah, sweet, albeit temporary, relief. you might be asking, 'is it really such a bad thing, this san genarro festival?' to which i ask: how would you feel if for 10 days your home and street were swarmed with 100,000 drunks eating funnel cakes and fighting each other and throwing up on your front step? you might not be so thrilled. as my neighbors and i are not so thrilled. you can feel a palpable chill spread through the neighborhood every year when they start putting up the san genarro decorations. 20 years ago san genarro was short and almost charming. now it's like a vomit covered monster on steroids. oh, one of my favorite san genarro moments...a few years ago i was walking through san genarro (by necesity as i needed to buy bread on the other side of mulberry street) and i heard a 5 year old girl (who was walking with her parents) say 'tongue jack my shit box'. she was reading a t-shirt that was for sale. charming. and at this moment a woman near them started throwing up while her friends pointed and laughed. i mean, call me uptight, but how do t-shirts that say 'tongue jack my shit box' and people throwing up on the street at 5pm venerate the memory of an italian saint?

moby

p.s-oh, and i believe that the san genarro festival costs the city of new york around $3,000,000 in extra sanitation and police fees. nice that our tax money goes to subsidize drunks throwing up on the streets rather than schools or parks...