So, I turn 33 this afternoon at 2:30. I don't think I'll be blogging much, if at all, today. I got laid-off from a gig about a year and a half ago and I've been running nonstop ever since. Your birthday is good time to lay back and reflect, no? Think about what I did right, what I did wrong, and what lessons to take into the next year. As my man said, that buck that bought the bottle could have struck the Lotto. I'll see you guys tomorrow.
UPDATE: One thing I do know: With every year a lose a bit of alcohol tolerance. Sad but true. I thought mine's was the lush life--I used to write music reviews with John Coltrane and Jack Daniel's. If I tried that now, I'd just fall asleep. Man, each year I get drier. How pathetic.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
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Many happy returns!
(Your lost gig has been our gain of your excellent blog.)
Happy Birthday man.
Happy birthday and thanks for your attention to things that matter.
Now I have an excuse for the prosecco I'm drinking. Cheers! Many happy returns on the day!
THC, you are exactly one week older than me. Next Tuesday I am going to lay back and reflect as well. This week: nothing but carefree, 32-year-old living.
Happy B-day, man!
But, how dare you take a day off when the financial future of the entire universe is on the edge of....
Aw, never mind - have one for me, ok?
I turn 21 today. Hopefully my alcohol tolerance holds up at least for tonight. Cheers.
Happy Birthday! Sorry you lost your last job, but very glad you landed here.
Happy Birthday!
I hear you about the whole alcohol tolerance thing. I was watching my Ravens hang in against the Stealers last night and was pounding booze (especially after the 14 points in 15 seconds in the 3rd). I just can't hang like I used to in college.
I'm not feelin' so great this morning.
33, time to realize that you are solidly in the 30's. I remember that well.
Enjoy the day. It's time to take up Scotch, since you have to sip it makes it seem that you are drinking more when all you are doing is drinking longer.
TNC --
Congrats on the b'day. Look back and think about how much you have changed and not changed since you turned 18. Amazing, isn't it?
And I agree with KevDog with one caveat: Scotch is great, but stick to Highland whiskeys. They are smoother and you will like longer.
TC
you cause me to remember myself at 33. with six kids at home, the youngest being four, i headed off to Atlanta University not knowing what was ahead. that was thirty years ago. take heart, all the fears, concerns and whatever have morphed into this wonderful life i lead today. all the kids have grown. each in their own way caring and aware men and women. my next to the youngest is your age and celebrating his birthday today. your mom and pops must be real proud of you. i know i am.
btw, the same thing happened with me and alcohol. i loved old jack. but today one beer and i start slowing down. two, i will possibly nod on you. three, count me out.
Hey, I hit 33 last Friday. So far it's wearing pretty well. Happy birthday, TNC, and congratulations on your successes so far.
Congrats and Happy Birthday.
Happy birthday! I've been 33 since June. It's not bad so far.
Happy Birthday TNC
Man, Does 1975 run this motherfucker or what?
I feel you on the boozin' too. I just can't hang no more.
Happy birthday. Hope the decreased tolerance doesn't keep you from having a good one. You deserve a break.
Happy Birthday. I'll hit 34 in a few weeks and the problem I have is my tolerance has barely declined, but the hangovers are a lot worse every year. I'm OK with a drink or two, but a couple times a year I'll get dumb and forget I'm not 25 anymore. Then I have a hangover most of the following week to remind me.
Happy birthday, enjoy the day off.
Happy birthday, man. As for the decreasing tolerance, well, as someone with five years on you, lemme warn ya, it doesn't get any easier. Stay away from Dogfish IPAs if you know what's good for you!
Best birthday wishes!
Happy Birthday. A good hangover prevention: take 2 aspirin before you go out drinking :-)
Happy b-day! I turn 29 in a few days myself. I do not mourn my alcohol tolerance levels, because now that I am older I can afford better alcohol.
I plan on celebrating with a nice bordeaux and some lebanese food.
Hope your lush life kept the Coltrane. Can't think of anything finer to enrich the soul.
Happy Birthday. Enjoy your Hennessy. That is what you drink isn't it? I mean forget all this Ron White whiskey talk.
And while I'm on race jokes and comedians. I am curious as to whether you caught Chris Rock's special that debuted on Saturday night. I am a huge Rock fan, but this ish was not funny. Really, pretty awful. And the format, where they showed him give the same act in three countries, was silly and ruined the connection with the home audience (I thought).
Since you are the real spokesman for black people (We know Lando is a just a front), I would love to know what you think.
"I used to visit all the very gay places
those come what may places
where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
to get the feel of life
from jazz and cocktails"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d6_LUDa_Zw
By far my favorite version of this song...
(not to repeat myself, but happy b-day, man)
Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...
I've found the decade from 35-45 to be most rewarding so hope you have as much to look forward to!
(I'm not sure about alcohol tolerance, but definitely no longer able to drink coffee after dinner if I want to sleep.)
Have a great celebratory day!!
Happy Birthday, and thanks for being awesome.
Have a good B-Day. And don't worry about the tolerance, go ahead and tie one on. You deserve it.
Happy Birthday! I hope it's a great one.
shiktantaza,
"Twelve-o'clock-tails.." Good link!
Mr. Coates,
Happy birthday man... Whiskey treats me right but I'm a bit younger.. I look at accomplished guys like you and think, damn, I better get my sh*t together. You've only got five on me. :-)
I hope you and your family thoroughly enjoy the day. -sv
I so hate when people say mines or mine's. That truly grates my nerves. I can take any other infraction...even when folks say IRregardless...but MINES? Sends me over the edge.
Happy Bday.
One year closer to death; One year further away from Junior High School.
Oops! Sorry for the double post!
happy birthday.
i'll be celebrating another one in a little less than two weeks and i always keep this in mind: the only bad birthday is one you don't celebrate. all of us are lucky to see as many as we see.
good move, ditching the jack daniels. in fact, ditch the hard liquor totally! discover the pleasure of a quality microbrew! much easier on the body, both in the short run and the long run.
and you can still enjoy coltrane and johnny hartmann, even with a cold one, rather than a shot of jack.
hey, dial up and listen to a version of afro blue. the live version always lifts my spirits and gets me going for the entire day. a great tune to get your head in the right space. it's always the first tune i punch up on my mp3 player when i take my pooch out on walks.
life-affirming.
Many happy returns of the day, Ta-Nehisi. It is a right and good thing to observe your birthday by not going to work as usual. My first boss (1978 A.D.) was a retired Marine colonel, with a crew cut no less. Aside from his appearance, however, he shattered every stereotype I had about Marines. Among other things, he required his staff to take off work on their birthdays. Given that we were all 20-somethings, recently relocated to New Orleans, we had no trouble following orders.
As to the decreased alcohol tolerance, that's probably a blessing. Think of it as Mother Nature's way of subtly reminding us that "Fat, drunk and stupid, is no way to go through life, son." (Dean Wormer to Bluto Blutarsky, Animal House, 1978 A.D.)
Who never wanted, — maddest joy
Remains to him unknown:
The banquet of abstemiousness
Surpasses that of wine.
Within its hope, though yet ungrasped
Desire’s perfect goal,
No nearer, lest reality
Should disenthrall thy soul.
As always Emily can say it better than I. So as we get older (my 33rd is in a few months) here's to sobriety, simplicity and sweetness on your birthday.
Happy birthday, Ta-Nehisi.
I am a longtime admirer of your print work (since the Washington City Paper days), and was very pleased to discover your blog about a month ago--reading it has now become a daily routine for me.
Enjoy your day off and please continue the excellent work.
Enjoy your well deserved day off.
When I started this song, I was still 33.
The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free.
Keats and Shelley too soon finished Charley Parker would be.
And I fantasized some tragedy would soon curtail me.
Well just today, I had my birthday. I made it, 34.
Mere mortal, not immortal, not star-crossed anymore.
I have this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore:
A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar.
Harry Chapin - There Only Was One Choice.
That is from memory, so I might have gotten some of the words wrong.
My 33rd birthday was only a couple of years ago, and yet a lifetime ago. I'd been widowed just over a year, and my little girl would be starting kindergarden in a month, and I had no freaking clue what I was doing, and just sort of figuring out that I hadn't died also.
Anyway, I came across this song in the months leading to it, and spent a lot of time thinking about this bit in particular, and realized that for me, pretending to rage like a lion was not going to be effective. And that I am fundamentally a tame and toothless tabby, but that the world is better for having them, too.
Anyway, happy birthday.
Happy Birthday!
Age vs. alcohol tolerance, the universal truth. And, as I have ten years on you, I can confirm that the inverse relationship continues.
Enjoy your day anyway!
Happy Birthday. I check your blog several times every day and every day I find something enjoyable. Thanks!
sv- have you heard that Hartman/Coltrane album? I'm not usually too into the crooner style, but I love that album. Coltrane's playing is beautiful, and Tyner/Jones/Garrison's accompaniment is perfect. Elvin Jones is still my favorite drummer. During Trane's solo on this track, Jones playing is active and expressive, but in no way steps on the solo. He drops those bass hits perfectly... I can listen to that over and over again.
Happy B DAY!
"Even though, we know somehow we all gotta go
but as long as we leavin thievin we'll be leavin with some kind of dough
so, and to that day we expire and turn to vapors
me and my capers-ll be somewhere stackin plenty papers
Keepin it real, packin steel, gettin high
Cause life's a bitch and then you die"
(best rap album ever)
Happy Birthday, I stay away from the hard stuff these days, though I never was much for Jack Daniels even when I drank liquor.
Happy birthday, fellow Libra! It's my birthday tomorrow.
Another tip of the birthday cap from a fellow Libra (known to be direct, cagy, ambitious types). I've long given up my drinking celebrations, but I'll tell my friends who like the Capt. Morgan to give a due.
Make sure you have a helluva cake with Kenyatta and the number one son!
A roaring lion kills no game.
No matter how far a stream flows, It never forgets it's source.
May the lessons learned at the feet of Malcolm Farrakahn continue to infuse your writing.
Happy Birthday...T.
Happy bday! You've quickly become one of my favorite bloggers...keep up the good work.
A birthday present? Salon respectfully mentions your empathy-for-Palin post in an article expressing no such emotion:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/
"Is this the week that Democrats and Republicans join hands -- to heap pity on poor Sarah Palin?
At the moment, all signs point to yes, as some strange bedfellows reveal that they have been feeling sorry for the vice-presidential candidate ever since she stopped speaking without the help of a teleprompter. Conservative women like Kathleen Parker and Kathryn Jean Lopez are shuddering with sympathy as they realize that the candidate who thrilled them, just weeks ago, is not in shape for the big game. They're not alone. The New Republic's Christopher Orr feels that Palin has been misused by the team that tapped her. In the New York Times, Judith Warner feels for Sarah, too! And over at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates empathizes with intelligence and nuance, making clear that he's not expressing pity. Salon's own Glenn Greenwald watched the Katie Couric interview and 'actually felt sorry for Sarah Palin.' Even Amy Poehler, impersonating Katie Couric on last week's 'Saturday Night Live,' makes the joke that Palin's cornered-animal ineptitude makes her 'increasingly adorable.'"
Happy B-Day T.
So, when you joining me in Warhammer? Get Mazzikim and Eschatology rolling together again. :)
shikantaza,
I have not heard that album. This style of music is not much to my taste - the vibe or attitude is weird to me. Partially this is bias from all the parodies of schmaltzy lounge-lizard crooner stuff pushing out of memory the *real* tracks I've heard, and partially, it may be a bit too sleepy for my taste. (One must usually listen carefully to jazz or not at all, but this particular type of music is tough.)
However, the lyrics are interesting and I'll listen again for the subtleties you mention. Maybe this will become my "hated it at first then couldn't do without it" thing.
-sv
Happy Birthday. Enjoy.
That verse always kinda summed up Nas to me. I respect and appreciate the brotha for at least trying to be thoughtful, but still he manages to come up with one a few things that could be more wasteful of his dollar than the 40 he eschews. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating but there is something poetically ironic in the statement that upon realizing that he could do more with his life, the best idea for investment he could come with is a lottery ticket...
Happy birthday. Yeah, as you get older, you feel the pain more and are smart enough to know what caused it! Just as well, though, since it can lead to a wide variety of health issues. Everything in moderation (including moderation!)
sv-
Yea... I'm totally feeling you on being biased against the schmaltzy lounge-lizard crooner style. This is the only album of that type that I own. The fact that it's a Trane album adds quite a bit to it for me. The man was so authentic, I don't think he could put out something that was in bad taste (unlike some Bill Evans albums I've heard).
Actually, all that being said, I do like Jens Lekman too. He is incredibly schmaltzy, but he embraces it and it's kind of the point of his music. It's totally ridiculous stuff, but I dig it.
Happy Birthday Ta-Nehisi!
Speaking as someone who's been 33 for a decade now, the tolerance thing just gets worse.
But the music gets better.
TNC,
Where can I get a bottle for a buck?
Thanks in advance.
I set off my 33rd this year with a shot of cravinho in Bahia.
Figured I'd up the ante for the Jesus year but you're having a hell of a year yourself.
Keep banging 'em out, homie. The cheering section is getting louder and louder.
wow!!!
the trane/hartmann collaboration is far from schmaltzy lounge lizard crooning.
it's kind of hard to imagine it described in that fashion.
it was an example of a vibrant, dynamic, unique style of jazz - played and sung originally and primarily by african-american artists in the post-war era, artists like billy ekstine and hartmann being prime examples - that unfortunately has been watered down and bastardized by less talented singers over the decades. that weirdly american dynamic was best illustrated by elvis stealing big momma thornton's "hound dog", cleaning it up, watering it down and making lots of money on her talent.. while the real artistry is lost.
anyone who cannot appreciate the true genius of johnny hartmann's effort...well, it's hard to describe how shallow that is.
imho...
i don't listen to a lot of classical music, but i get a chill up my spine when i hear stuff that is really good. i can't imagine anyone listening to patsy cline - with an open mind - and not being able to say, yea, that girl can sing! it's almost an involuntary reaction. it's just hard to deny the impact of work that reflects great talent.
the stuff that trane and hartmann did belongs in that same category.
appreciating what he did with hartmann is a much a part of appreciating trane as is enjoying his work as he romps through "my favorite things".
i don't listen to either tune every day, but when either turns up via the shuffle mode of my mp3 player, i never regret it.
Welcome to Club 33, Ta-Nehisi. I've been here since July. It's not a bad place to be, but the trendlines are discomforting.
Happy Birthday Ta-Nehisi! I depart the 33 Club myself in about a month. It's not a bad place, the 33 Club.
Have a wonderful cake day with your family. Take a break from politics + blogging.
I just discovered your blog recently and have been very much enjoying it. Best wishes to you for a happy, self-reflective birthday!
Happy Birthday TC!
If you have a chance in the year of 33, read Fred Moten's latest book "In the Break." He's a former prof of mine from CA but now at Duke... and wicked smart, empathetic, honest, funny.
You remind me of him.
Happy B-day, love the Illmatic line.
Add one skill point, and deduct one stamina. That's pretty much it. Enjoy, and keep up the great writing!
Happy Birthday Mr. Coates!
I noticed the alcohol consumption bit when I turned 30 too. It also coincided with the birth of my first child. Makes a difference when you may need to drive at any time.
Anyway, I'll crack open a Broon (Newcastle brown Ale) and toast you tonight ... and then fall asleep.
Thanks for providing us with tis forum.
Happy Birthday!
You're now as old as Jesus was! 33 is a big year!
Happy Birfday Ta,
Glad you're with us, and thanks for making me momentarily famous ("Obama 08 - Fuck The Dumb Shit!")
Happy Birthday TC.
Don't worry, I'm losing my tolerance too, and I'm only 25!
Nice Nas reference from the greatest hip hop album ever. Happy birthday TC.
Let me, another from '75, add to the good wishes for a writer whom I've just discovered this year, and whose stuff I enjoy. Congrats, Mr Coates.
I also should note that there are a lot of mentions of Jesus at age 33. Also Alexander the Great finished conquering his empire (and died), and Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Just sayin.
Larry Bird White Jesus Number 33
happy birthday whiner! get back to me when you are sixty-fuckin'-one years old. it doesn't suck, but it's close. i can't imagine being fucking 70. and newman made it to 80 something. jeez. maybe being wealthy makes it a little easier. but not much, is my guess.
33 years ago today i was on causeway street in boston. i rode down in the elevator in the commonwealth bank building next to the old boston garden with dave cowan and red auerbach. according to my journal for 30 september 1975, tuesday, cowan asked auerbach if he wanted to "eat at mickey dee's?" i had no idea at the time of what "mickey dee's" meant or was. i was 28, and had no idea i was a fucked up vietnam vet. i just thought i was fucked up...
i was going to lunch and bought a can of coke, stopped in at the liquor store on canal street, and bought a 1/2 pint of bacardi. i dumped out half of the coke and filled it up with the bacardi, put in a straw and walked up to somewhere near faneuil hall and drank the can of coke. good to the last drop.
then i went back to work. don't ask.
here's some advice for you as birthday present: always keep some prescription drug hidden away that you can comfortably commit suicide with.
you never know.
happy bday, dood.
your fan in saipan.
damn. i forgot this. thanks for bringing up the day of your birth. it gave me the opportunity to look up what i was doing that day.
always expect the unknown unknowns. there are an infinite number of them.
your fan in the sudan.
Happy birthday TNC
May the next year find you continuing to speak truth to power. Love the work man.
I have to say that your blog has been the most refreshing thing I have read in ages. Thanks for helping to restore my faith in humanity.
Older people have less alcohol tolerance because you lose lean body mass (read: muscle) with age, so the same amount of alcohol in your body is actually a higher percentage of your body water. Sorry for the nerdy factoid, but thought it was interesting.