Sunday, January 7, 2007

Chinks In The Armor




Well, the above normal weather is gone, and I'm back to my normal winter self. I was up north by Larry Santoro and his lovely wife Tycelia watching Tyrone Power films and other frivolities, and on the way home I was caught in a freezing downpour between my reaching street-level from the subway and then walking to the elevated tracks for the Orange Line. The worst of it was the 50 minute wait for my last bus home. I stood reading THE NIGHT GARDENER by George Pelecanos, fully aware that my hands were turning into claws in the near empty waiting terminal. I wear knee braces now, just so I can keep my balance better and not look like I am walking on beach balls most of the time. I am going to die alone--riding single-harness, as Johnny Cash might say--and if I had a choice, when my typing abilities are gone, I'd much rather end up playing ice cream vendor tunes on an accordion than moan on the street alone like the guy in Omaha back in 1995. Accordion Man is always in the Loop, playing on various streets each day, mostly in shorts even in the cold and rain. Most times, once I turn off my CDs of Cash or Yusef/Cat Stevens, I can hear Moaning Man. The echoes are very close. Wayne

4 comments:

Larry Santoro said...

Thanks for posting Alan's painting for the "Just North of Nowhere" cover. I hope the trip home wasn't too frigid and too wet...but I'm sure DEXTER 8,9, and 10 were worth it.

So...do you PLAY the accordian? If so...that's a certain way to ensure that you slip Gentle into that Good Night all by yourself!

All of which is better than becoming a geek in the carnival of life. A bottle a day and a dry place to sleep it off... Sing that, Tyrone!

Larry

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

We all die alone, don't we, Wayne?

Strange that. I recently read that as a curse from one dying wizard aimed at another. Those very two words. It was in Butcher's "Dead Beat", a Dresden Files book.

And as for when your typing abilities are gone, may I suggest finding some state of the art dictation software? I remember when it was introduced and have to believe there must be some decent voice activation software out there somewhere.

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

Larry, I do not play the Stomach Steinway, although I can polka with the best of 'em. Stewart, I will go to my grave avoiding voice activation. I want to be remembered as a stubborn old cuss who typed every piece of his work with two fingers. Thanks for your thoughts, though.

Larry Santoro said...

Of course you were of the "I'll flatline before I go online" persuasion oh so few years ago, too. Keep those indexes limber, lad.

Larry