Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

In honor of Billy Joel's 75th  Birthday I decided top do a Facebook tribit   This will only make sense to a couple of my friends. I don't care. Picture this a scene certain young musical writer from NYC who is riding high on a recent success feels he needs to escape for the weekend. He has never been to the Jersey Shore and decides to take a drive to for the weekend. He arrives at his hotel in Cape May County , checks in for the evening, picks up the local rag and sees a Billy Joel Cover Band is playing in North Wildwood, the writer scoffs but his girlfriend reminds him he was once a struggling writer and he needs to "pay it forward". They go to the bar and he is so blown away by the performance he goes "Back stage" to meet the singer. The writer and the singer hit it off and go to the bar to continue the conversation. After a few drinks and covering all topics possible the singer decides the time is right to get serious and mentions he knows a local wr...

 A lot of my blogging friends occasionally allow guest post to their blogs, some good some bad, but I have to post this post  by my friend Briann Gelnaw. Brian and I  forged a friendship the way a lot of my post-high school friendships were forged, at the Cornerstone in Hillsdale. Yes he was one of the  "Thursday Night Crew" just like Alex & Jamie. Brian has taken the 50 days 50 friends challenge where he posts a picture a day of a friend and writes how he met  them. Well  today he decided to highlight yours truly.I consider it an early birthday present: Day 22: Justin Mattes  It must have been the year Sanchez came to the Jets. I talked shit all season, and with good reason...as far as I was concerned they were going to win the whole damn thing. Super Bowl was ours!!!! Well the Jets lost in the AFC Championship game. My friends busted on me, my brother in law laughed and told me how the Jets will never win. Then from the other side of th e room ...

Now normally  a 2.3 mile trip is nothing to write home (or on here) a bout but last night  was definitely a travel worth nting. It seems the Cornerstone has lost a bit of its luster over the past year, the crew which I have affectionately called my drinkiong buddies have moved north of the border./ Now actually even though it's closer to my  house Westwood Taxi charge $25 without tip where as a trip to the Cornerstone is  $15 with tip, so it is only on special occasions I go up there. Last night I had it in me I wanted to try something different. Maybe it was a little reward for getting back in the pool in over a month or writing a baby poem, though I still have three l=eft to write, so much for celebration.  Thoughts of the past few weeks flash through my  mind and I think it could have been I just needed a little more action the Cornerstone had to offer on a Thursday night. When the taxi dropped me off at the Cornerstone instead of going into the bar I ...

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. Claudius, Act IV, scene v Within a 38 hour timeframe I went from axnious to overwelming happy to disappointed back to happy back to axnious now back to disappointed. People wonder why I don't like roller coasters well maybe it's because I have the emotional one too many times. Justin Mattes Two  quotes, a very famours one from Shakespeare's Hamlet the other my Facebook status update written yesterday. It's actually the first thing I wrote since calling Sean a "fucking hyenia" fo r him laughing at mt dispair. I promised myself I wouldn't rehash this story over and over again but here I am anyway. It all started with an invite to a party in the city, which intself is a big deal, something about going into the city is a big deal.  Added to the fact I got this idea in my head it was time I...

Sometimes  the best things are left to chance and I couldn't have better proof than the event that happened last evening. My folks went out to dinner with friends and with nothing good on TV I decided to take a trip to the Cornerstone. Usually I go there only on Thursday nights to  hang out with my friends, but the Coronas and shots of Jack Daniels were calling. I got dressed and called up Westwood Taxi, I was sitting at the bar by a little after 9PM. Usually there's a DJ playing dance music  way too loud, however when I entered the bar that evening much to my delight I saw a drum set being setup in one of the side rooms. The owner who just knows me as "J"  caught me sneaking glimpses and said it was something new at the Cornerstone. They would host a band one or two Saturdays each month, the first band  in this "concert series" was The Brian Dougherty Band . I was very impressed that my "local bar" was starting to host  bands!! Th...

Continued from A Chance Encounter---Part I As we made our way out to her car in the back of my mind I had some major flshbacks from the almost nineteen year when I enter the Woodcliff School System. I thought about the times the kids used to tease m e on a daily basis. I thought ho no matter what I did or how much I tried I simply could not fit in. I had a couple of kids who talked to me but never "friends" just people who at least undestood my physical and emotional troubles enough to at least talk to- me. However the kids who were nice to me tended to be outsider s as well so I felt alone. I was never teased in public, well expect that one incident in the library very my manhood what question and to prove the creeps wrong I threw a chair clear across the room! The girls were worse, they just plain ignored me. Which to a socialable guy like myself is pure torture and emotionally crippling. There are so many horror stories over the eight years it would take about twenty-fi...

Alright followers of this blog must be doing a double take because about a year ago I wrote about the 1997 Class reunion. Well a little background. If you read the June 24 th you'll figure out I did high school in five years instead of four. Well both the Class of 97 and the Class of 98 made me one of their own so I went to two junior and two senior proms, going to two ten year reunions seemed like the natural progression. Besides Jeff has been wanting me to reunite with an old buddy Mike Miller, another PV alumni, and I didn' t want to disappoint him. I also worked hard those fives years to make friends and I wanted to see how everyone was doing Ironically it was in the same place as last year so that was a bit of a downer. Last year I got a ride this year I had to rely on Mom and Dad's Taxi (a downer in itself.) Even though I would never convince anyone I got there 45 minutes before the event started just so nobody would notice they dropped me off. OK I screwed up the ...

Being it's the Monday after Thanksgiving I should label this as such, but I am not renaming "Part I". Alright the traditional Wenesday night barfest continues, with a twist this year. People that think New Year's Eve is a big drinking holiday don't go out the night before Thanksgiving. Knowing you have four full days to mend your wounds from a very late evening helps too. In a way it's even better than Christmas Eve, only different is you arenn't looking forward to the next morning.It came into question a mulititude of times if I could survive the walking. Although thee timing and the amount of drinking, was perfet! The bars up in Pearl River NY held something called a bar crawl consisting of a number of bars all within walking distance, yes even by my standards. It's something my brother wanted to do last year, but wound up staying in one bar. Alright the night began with an opening round at Felix's House. Ok all Thanksgivings open with drinks a...

Ever since I was little I could always remember I like Christams better than Thanksgiving (what kid doesn 't?). Alright that still maybe true but I can say with a straight face I like the week that leads upto Thanksgiving better thaN the week leading upto- Christmas. Maybe it's because Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, no matter what the DATE it falls on. One of the very few highlights of going to school here was that the week before Thanksgiving was always half days, it still remains the same today, Monday and Tuesday are parent-teacher conferences and they make Wenesday a half day jut because it's the day before Thanksgiving. The night before has become just as important, it started in high school when we had the tradition Pascack Valley bon fire. Ok I only made it the t h e last two of my five year at PV, but they both were what I would consider two of the higlights of going to high school. Now that we're older my other brother Peter and I go out to the bars...