Category: Uncategorized

While I was out today I looked for that building on West Street, the one in the 1885 photograph I posted a week ago or so.  It turns out the one I thought it was is on Washington Street.  At first I thought it might still be the one, and that in 1885 Washington was the most western street and that the current West Street might was the newer one after landfill.  But then I thought about it some more and realized that didn’t make sense.  They wouldn’t have renamed the existing street from West to Washington and made the new one the new “West.”  Sure enough, I found an 1886 map and West and Washington existed then.

Most of all those old shipping docks are gone.  Some of them still existed when I first moved here, although the shipping companies and ships were long gone.  I was thinking I wished they were all still active shipping line, but I think when they were my neighborhood was seedy and depressing for the most part.

I know it must feel like this blog is all Aly Sujo all the time.  I’ll stop soon.  But with email help from friends of friends (thank you Stewart Bronaugh) I’ve started digitizing the Leisure Units songs.  Jeff also pointed me to Aly’s death notice in the Times today:

SUJO–Aly, of Woodstock, NY and Caracas, Buenos Aires died suddenly on Sunday, October 5, 2008 near his home. Devoted husband of Laney Salisbury and loving father of Sophie Salisbury-Sujo. Also survived by his mother Clara Diament Sujo, his brother Glenn R. Sujo in London, his niece Kim S. Sujo and her husband Carlos Marrero of Caracas, as well as their families and friends in the United States, Venezuela, England and Argentina who pray for his peace in heaven forever more.

I also scanned a few more photographs.  The first two are of Aly and Jeff and Phil and Carol Zaleski at a beach in Massachusetts somewhere in the late 70’s.   Aly isn’t in the third one but Mike McClintock is, along with the Zaleskis and Mike’s girlfriend at the time (I can’t remember her name). Mike was the first Leisure Unit to die.

A long time ago I retrieved all the master tapes of the Leisure Units music from Skyline Studios. I think they may have been about to throw them out, in any case, I gave them to Aly years later. I had cassettes made of their songs and I’d like to digitize them and make MP3s for myself and anyone else who would like them. But two things: I don’t know how and maybe someone has already done this?

If you have could you let me know?  Or, could someone else help me figure out how to do this? All I have to play them is a Sony Professional Walkman, so I need to connect the Walkman to my Powerbook and I guess I could use GarageBand to record them while they play.  Except I don’t know what cable to buy to plug from which output in the Walkman to which input in the Powerbook. I’m sure I could figure this all out, but I thought maybe someone out there would just know.  Or again, someone else may have already done this!

Thank you in advance for any help anyone can give me.  (This is Aly, Jeff Zaleski and me at lunch, last year I believe, in the summer.)

I remember watching a movie and one character warns another to do something because you always think you’ll have another chance, but sometimes you don’t. Sometimes this is it, your last chance. The Christmas before my mother died, I called her the next day to thank her for doing such a nice job because I thought, “You never know, maybe this will be the last Christmas you ever see her.” And it was. I had lunch with Aly Sujo a few weeks ago. We didn’t talk much.  It was with a bunch of people and he was on the other side of the table.  He seemed distracted and not entirely happy, and I didn’t ask him about it, not knowing I would never see him again. Our last meaningful conversation was when his dog died. He called me because he knew I got how ridiculously attached we are to our pets and could properly commiserate.

Last night the Green Day song with the lyric from the title of this post played on tv for a few seconds.  I asked myself if I was having the time of my life.  I could honestly answer that I was doing the best I could, even if my best really sucked a lot of the time.  I’m pretty much always trying, even though, again, being painfully honest, in some areas I’ve given up. But even in those areas, every day I try not to keep giving up. 

I think Aly had the time of his life.  Even if his best sucked sometimes too, he was also always trying.  I know because every time we got together he would ask me how I did things that he found difficult.  He struggled.  So fearless and so fearful, too.  God, I think we could probably all sum up our lives with:  Things I was afraid of and things I was not afraid of.  So Aly was a complicated mix of strengths and flaws.  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen his worst.  But I think there is really no question that he had the time of his life.  He tried.  The stories I could tell!  But I’m keeping this post purposely vague because it feels like I should. But I admired how he tried.  

I’ll bet a lot of people miss him.  I say this because one of my favorite things about Aly was, and it’s a completely selfish thing, but every second I was with him I felt really liked. And admired too, for all my best qualities.  And I felt compassion for my failings. And understood.  His feelings were just so present and it was a pleasure to feel that. As far as I could tell he was that way with all his friends, the ones I saw him with anyway.  I wonder what I gave him?

But I’ll bet a lot of people miss him.  He was so loving for someone who could such be a complete asshole at times (although for me those asshole times are in the distant past).

The picture is of one of the lions in front of Aly’s old apartment on West 11th Street.  I went in and out of that apartment I don’t know how many katrillion times during such a formative, roller coaster time of my life.  So many memories.  The lions are fading away.  All memories of Aly and everything that happened in there will fade away as everyone who knew him fades away. As I someday will fade away.  I have no words of wisdom really, except what we all already know. There is nothing more important than what you do now.  Are you having the time of your life now?  It might be your last chance. So far I’ve found it impossible to live with that kind of awareness always.  But I keep trying.

I’m posting this since I saw that a number of people were looking for information about Aly on the web.  If you were a friend of Aly’s, there is going to be a memorial on October 26th.