So my friend Matt was coming over to my apartment in Queens on Sunday night to watch the Kansas City Chiefs vs the San Francisco 49’ers. I was making Turkey Chili, and I was pretty psyched, because I make a mean chili.
I had gone shopping on Saturday and bought 2lbs of Turkey Chili, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, 2 green peppers, a Spanish onion, a can of Kidney beans, and a can of white Kidney beans. Plus a ton of spices, from Mexican chili powder to Cayenne pepper to oregano to garlic powder to a ton of other stuff. Simply put, in the spice and sauce department, I was set! I also bought a brick of sharp cheddar cheese to grate over the chili, along with those dangerously decadent “Hint Of Lime” Tostitos tortilla chips, which are incredible. 1950 calories per bag, and you earn every calorie.
Matt arrived around 4pm from Westchester, and he brought salsa, chips, and beer. I had vodka and soda at home already, so we were pretty set for food and drink.
For the next hour and a half we alternated between getting fucked up on beer and weed and checking on the chili. I had some vodka. Matt had more beer.
And we talked about the 2020 elections. I’ve known Matt since my freshman year at Oberlin College in Ohio. He’s from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, originally, and I’m from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but we just always clicked. He’s a very progressive Jew, and so am I. He has a lot more family money than I do, but it’s never strained our relationship. He’s just a good dude.
So eventually, around 6pm, the chili had simmered down and reduced, and Matt suggested it was close to ready. I checked it, agreed, and ladled out two servings in two bowls for us, with a bowl of shredded cheddar cheese to dollop on top.
How was it? Honestly I would say it was pretty good to very good, but not quite great. It needed a while longer to simmer on the burner.
Matt and I ate, and watched the Super Bowl, and it was a close game at 10-10 in the second quarter. Matt had to leave then, because he lives in Westchester and has to be up at 5am for work.
So I bid him adieu, and I turned off the game. In all honesty, I didn’t really care who won. Eventually I checked and saw that Kansas City had won, but who cares?
What I did do is lie in my bed with my beautiful Tabby cat Copper and listen to 80’s songs on my phone. And one of the most powerful songs I heard was “Louder Than Love” by TKA. They were an Afro-Puertorican band that had a couple huge hits in the 80’s. “Louder than Love” was their biggest hit, and the late 80’s video was incredibly sexy, as a light-skinned black man caresses and kisses a Hispanic woman.
It’s an incredibly hot scene, and much of the video takes place in a high-rise office tower across from the New Yorker hotel on West 40th Street and 8th Avenue. Considering how much talent TKA seems to have, it’s a wonder they never made it past 80’s one – or two- hit wonder status.
The video rolls on, and the two key members of TKA come close to making love to their female companions, without quite going all the way. It’s fitting for the times.
So as the Super Bowl comes to a close, and I see Kansas City beat San Francisco 31 – 20, my mind drifts back to TKA and Louder Than Love. If we could just have more love, and less tackling each other and knocking each other out, maybe this would be a better country.
Then we could all be Louder Than Love.
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