more toast!

later, i went to live in london, april 1980 for several months. but the first trip was june of '77, a jubilee year. and today or was it yesterday, watching the boats on the thames and the queen and all made me think of that year. london was fun that year. i stayed in a small bed & breakfast out by kings cross station. 3 quid a nite. and dig this: as much toast and tea as one wanted with breakfast! the place was run by real english people. "more toast?" i loved it! and more tea! ha ha ha!! just to see all the streets that had been in stones songs. the brits were in a good mood that year, and the pound was weak against the dollar. the weather was good. the punk thing was happening but i didnt pay too much attention. "MORE TOAST?"

an odd cat: august 77

at the new york airport there was a booth where one could get help booking a hotel. the lady got on the phone. 'how much do you want to spend'. well...i dont think i said but she got me a room at the tudor hotel on east 42nd st for $20 per nite. i was pleased. i think the tudor has been remodeled now, but the rooms back then were very small. which was fine with me. new york still felt like the old days. breakfasts were 99 cents until 11 a m. eggs toast, juice etc. do these places still exist?? the 2nd nite i went to the yankees/white sox game. it was a see-saw affair. this may have been august 17th. i dont remember who won. back at the tudor the TV mentioned the news about presley. the next day i phoned a j weberman, the dylanologist. his name and phone number were at the back of the paperback edition of scaduto's dylan bio. he lived on bleecker st. near the bowery. 'i'm selling the masters' he said. it seems columbia was giving him some shit about selling copies of his unreleased dylan tapes. so i went over there. he was an odd cat. there was a big painting in his place of dylan shooting up. i think the lady who was there had made the painting. weberman seemed, uh.... well, he was nice enough but not particularly friendly. he sold me 50 reels of unreleased dylan for $100. thats right folks, $2 per tape. i must have dragged them back to the tudor. and they eventually flew back with me to california. they brought me much joy over the coming months. fortunately, several people i knew in the bay area made reel to reel copies of these tapes, which is fortunate, as my tape collection has gotten scattered over the years, as careful as i am with my archival materials. i called weberman 2 years later but he pretended he didnt remember me OR the tapes. an odd cat.