WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1998:
After yet another night where I should have gotten a fairly decent night's sleep and didn't, I again woke up just wanting to go back to sleep, but then I remembered that it was day 3 of Armando's visit and that got me started once more. I took my time getting ready to go to New York, by bus this time, and as this sort of thing often goes, I was half an hour late to meet Armando by the time I got there, armed with a tour itinerary stored in my head which I had put together literally at the last minute on the subway train to Brooklyn. I returned to the place I had dropped Armando off at two nights earlier, at first to find no sign of him. Pulling out the phone number he had given me, I went to a pay phone and called him, but the phone rang off the hook with no answer. Panic started to set in again, but just as I walked back to the door of the place he was staying, there he was. I apologized to him for being late, and told him, "The first thing you learn in New York City is that people here are never on time," to which he replied, "Hey, it's the same way in Mexico City!" Two days before, when he came in from Mexico City, Armando had his hair tied in a ponytail, but today, without the ponytail, he revealed a head of hair that made him look almost exactly like he did on the cover of EL LOCO, and really not a hell of a lot older either.
After determining that the chances of Armando's girlfriend flying in to join him were pretty much close to zero, Armando and I hit the subway, whereupon I instantly slipped into tour guide mode, a role I would remain in for the entire afternoon. I kicked off his sightseeing trip by taking him over the Manhattan Bridge and showing him the East River and Statue of Liberty, Armando making sure to focus briefly on locating the Brooklyn Heights section Los Dug Dug's arrived at in 1968, a mere four days prior to the infamous massacre in Mexico that year. After some more subway riding, I brought Armando to Times Square for his first visit in 30 years. It was while we were making our way towards Times Square that a celebrity of a more mainstream kind pulled briefly into view, pushing his way past the two of us, politely but sternly excusing himself as he passed us. It was none other than Al Franken, the old SNL star turned senator, and I was taken aback by his presence just enough to start to say to Armando, "Hey, did you see that? That was Al Franken who just passed us!" before realizing that nobody in Mexico has probably ever heard of Al, least of all Armando! (And besides, who's the real celebrity in this story, anyway?) Still, it was kind of cool to think that Armando could at least say he saw a celebrity while he was here.
To 48th Street between 6th & Broadway we went, and Armando took the time to browse through every music store on the block, along the way starting up a most interesting discussion between us of the fine art of guitar collecting, an avid interest of his. In the back of my mind I was hoping he would be tempted to try out a guitar or two, and if so, to perhaps take a request for a solo live version of "Lost in My World," but Armando was clearly more interested in seeing than touching the merchandise, perhaps due to his aversion to doing such a thing in such a casual, informal situation. Nevertheless, Armando impressed me with his extensive knowledge about guitars. Once he'd had his fill of 48th Street, we decided to just zoom downtown to Greenwich Village. It was on the way downtown that Armando suddenly asked me, "Say, would you happen to know where I can find any videotapes of that old TV show from the 60s, Shindig?"
Several minutes after he asked me that question, we were at Tower Records, looking first through the CD's (a great moment occurred here where I fetched a Spice Girls CD out of the rack, showed it to him and asked for his comments, whereupon he brushed the CD aside and said simply, "Ugh!") and then through the video section. It was in the music vid section that Armando went into a feeding frenzy for over half an hour! Someone as jaded as myself would probably take a casual browse every so often through their music vid section, but to Armando, it was a treasure trove of great music clips I've no doubt he'd have as tough a time finding back in Mexico as we have trying to find Dug Dug's albums here in the States! He got his Shindig videos, plus a few other choice selections, and had to deal with some confusion at checkout as the clerk initially wouldn't take his credit card, but that matter smoothed out in time and he soon had his souvenirs safely in his grasp. Incidentally, while he had his wallet out, he took out another souvenir for me -- his business card, reproduced below!
St. Mark's Place was next on our agenda. On the walk over there, Armando took some time to give me some of the inside dirt on Los Dug Dug's final days as a quintet, at the time of their first album (which they recorded on a mere four tracks). Shortly after the album's release, Jorge De La Torre (who was their original lead singer, and in fact sings lead vocals on "Eclipse" and "It's Over") was busted for marijuana possession and landed in jail, forcing the band to reduce its lineup to a quartet for its performance at the Avandaro Festival, after which the band seemed doomed, until Armando started from scratch again and recast the band as a power trio (and what a power trio!) for the incredible second album.
The day before, I'd made a quick stop at Mondo Kim's record shop on St. Mark's Place, and when I saw that they had just added fresh copies of the CD reissue of the first album and that new best-of-that's-hardly-a-best-of CD I wrote about earlier, I knew Armando was in for a potential treat when I brought him by there the next day. I had also remembered to bring along a stack of copies of ABRE TU MENTE with me when I left the house today, figuring on placing a few of them at Mondo Kim's and Rockit Scientist Records. We went inside, I took him over by the psych CD section, and asked him if he noticed anything, and he sure did, although by the time I'd gotten him over there, someone had bought the copy of the first album that had been there the day before.
After Armando marveled at the sight of his CD sticking out an American record store rack, he lost himself for awhile in the world of the used CD section. I suggested to him that we should give the store a few copies of ABRE TU MENTE and I proceeded to the front counter to inquire, whereupon he and I were introduced to the store's buyer, a cool gent named Simon, who seemed as equally dazed as I was at the realization that he was talking to the main Dug Dug himself! After buying up a few copies and asking if there might be more, he then decided to take one for himself and asked Armando to autograph it, and made sure to tell us of a local distributor who would likely be interested in buying up some more of our precious stock. Along the way he made sure we knew of the small write-up the two Dug Dug's CDs got in the latest issue of UGLY THINGS, and had me give him the URL for EL MUNDO LOCO DE LOS DUG DUG'S, promising to keep in touch. Armando then wanted ME to keep the money we'd received in exchange, but I insisted he take it, so he picked out a couple of used CD's instead and added to his growing souvenir collection. On the way out of Mondo Kim's, Armando was beaming from the attention he'd received inside the store. "That made me very happy," he said softly.
We kept on walking down St. Mark's Place towards Tompkins Square Park, when Armando announced he was hungry and asked me to suggest a place where we could eat and relax. By coincidence, there was a Mexican food joint right across the street, and I started to suggest that we go there. Well, I guess I made too obvious a selection, for Armando no sooner heard my suggestion than burst out laughing, saying, "Ray, man, I eat plenty of that stuff back home! I'm thinking more of eating some American food, you know?" So I took him to a more American food-oriented place where we had a ball feasting on fried chicken wings and open-faced sandwiches while comparing all sorts of very similar opinions on music.
He then spilled the beans on his plans for the next day, which came about partially with my involvement: I had successfully sought out his old American manager, Frank Mangano, found to my severe shock that he lived not very far away from me, secured his permission to give Armando his phone number, and now the two of them had plans to hang out the next day for the first time in many years! Immediately I acted opportunistic, asking if there might be some way I could get in on their little summit, and Armando said he would keep me posted. On the way out of the restaurant, I started to count out the money needed to pay our tab, whereupon Armando absolutely refused to let me pay for it, insisting on picking it up himself! What a guy!
The hour was growing towards evening, the temperature was getting colder, and I had to get around to catching up on things back at my place, though I offered to first accompany Armando on the fairly simple subway trek back to where he was staying. But Armando insisted that I didn't have to go out of my way to show him back there. I insisted that nothing was too much for me to accommodate him, but he said, "It's okay, I'll be fine." Since all he had to remember was that the N or R trains took him to 59th Street in Brooklyn, and since I knew it would be safe for him to take the subway there alone in the late stages of rush hour, I showed him to the nearest stop, and told him I'd call Frank Mangano myself as soon as I got home, since I definitely wanted to speak with him a second time anyway. We shook hands and went our ways.
Back home, I should have been tired, and on the bus I had started to feel a bit sleepy. But then I got back to my room and saw all the Dug Dug's memorabilia strewn all over the place, and caught a whiff of the faint odor of Mexican mildew that was now lingering in the room like a spectre, and I was wide awake once again. I sensed once again that my day was still not over yet. There was still that box of copies of ABRE TU MENTE, and I felt tempted to have a little fun with some of them, and perhaps test how much attention my beloved website was receiving. On the spur of the moment I decided to post a message to the two psychedelic & garage rock music lists I was on, announcing that I would be giving away five copies of the record to the first five people to reach me at my e-mail address. I wrote up the message, sent the posts, and forgot about it for the next hour.
After finishing up other tasks, I checked my e-mail to see if any "contest entries" had arrived. No less than twelve were waiting for me, all in an hour's time! I couldn't respond to the first five of them quickly enough! And through the night, I ended up receiving a grand total of 33 entries, over 20 of them in a single night! It was truly amazing, and I knew Armando would be pleased to hear about it all. I also took the time to call Frank Mangano, who thanked me profusely for hooking him up with Armando and after taking my phone number, hinted that I may indeed get to spend time with him and Armando on Thursday night. I'm still awaiting word on this as I write, but I've no doubt I've already got my ticket there. And indeed, man, if he calls, I'm there, dude.
THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1998:
I woke up, wrote about yesterday's tour of the city with Armando, and relaxed for awhile, hoping that the night would bring an evening with Armando and Frank Mangano. Traffic was a bitch that afternoon, they got started a bit later than originally planned as a result, and I got really sleepy as I waited half the evening for any word from them. The more I waited, the sleepier I became. This burning of the candle at both ends had to start sinking in sooner or later. I finally gave up and went to sleep. They must've been pretty busy because they never called, and I did feel mildly disappointed. But that was okay because I knew there were more good times with Armando not too far down the road.
FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1998:
Got really busy today and didn't get around to calling Armando till after 9 PM. He told me he had a great time with Frank the night before, and that Frank gave him a bunch of reel-to-reel tapes and acetates of Los Dug Dug's New York recordings! He then told me he had spent another day wandering around NYC on his own, getting lost as usual. He lamented that there are very few good used guitar stores in the city, and asked if I knew where he could pick up a certain type of camcorder battery. With my mind thinking towards scheduling time over the weekend for another afternoon together, I asked him which day was better for him, and when he told me Sunday was best, it set up instant Sunday dinner plans, as I invited him to once again come and visit my folks. He graciously accepted the invite, and we wrapped things up with Armando once again wondering about his girlfriend and whether or not she would ever make it to New York. We said our goodbyes for the evening and I stayed up late listening to lots of Dug Dug's and a few other bands.
Just when I thought things were over for the night and was headed off to sleep at 2:00 in the morning, however, the phone rang out of nowhere. I answered on the first ring and a woman on the other end of the line started saying something in Spanish which I couldn't understand, but when she said "Armando" I had a clue as to who it was: his girlfriend. I tried to tell her as best I could that Armando was in Brooklyn, and she seemed to understand. I then began to think of the right way to tell her the number in Spanish, but she just said "Gracias" and hung up before I could begin. Following this call, I finally hit the hay, but I couldn't help but think that something was brewing...
SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1998:
After a whole day of failing to get through to Armando, I finally got him on the line at last around 10 PM and was about to tell him about the 2 AM phone call but he was way ahead of me with news of his own: the seemingly impossible had happened, his girlfriend had flown in that morning, he had picked her up by train from Kennedy Airport, and the two went all over the city and had just stepped in seconds before I tried to call them for the zillionth time. Yes, he said, that was her who called at 2 AM, and he was profusely apologetic about it, but I told him it was okay and that I was still awake when she called (at which he acted surprised!). So of course, this now made for two guests coming to dinner on Sunday. It was fine by me, and I told him she could most certainly come even before I asked my parents about it (I knew they would approve anyway, and Mom was quick to say, "This will be interesting!"). He promised he would bring the tapes and acetates of the early Dug Dug's over for us to listen to, and told me I was more than welcome to make my own cassette copy of them if I wanted to.
As soon as I got off the phone, the very first thing I did was immediately check to see if I had any blank cassettes!
CLICK HERE FOR PART 3!
No comments:
Post a Comment