C I P R I A N I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqgYBRF9Qjs

Where do I start?

I guess I’ve already started. This is more about continuing…

I’m listening to Billy Joel’s “Vienna” from The Stranger. Not on purpose, it just came up on the iTunes as I was writing thing. I think it’s been decades since I’ve listened to the studio version of the song.

Why can’t I think of The Stranger without thinking of Judd Nelson in St. Elmo’s Fire? Why do I like St. Elmo’s Fire? Of course, It’s been over a decade since I’ve even watched St. Elmo’s Fire. I don’t even know if I’d still like it – Who am I fooling? I’d still like it. I’d love it. I might even love it more.

Leonard Nimoy died yesterday.

I’m not a “trekkie” but Start Trek II: The Wrath of Khan might be one of my favorie movies. And it occurs to me that I mentioned that film at the very beginning of this collection of essays, this blog, this mind dump as it’s been called…

Can you hear me doing a Shatner impression? Wait a minute, it’s not a Shatner impression. It’s a Hugo Weaving “Mr. Smith” impression from The Matrix.

Maybe it’s the same thing. Either way, right now, my mind feels very clear, and yet this passage seems conspicuously disjointed…

This is probably not the only passage on this blog that seems disjointed.

I don’t completely understand poetry. I know that I really love Carl Dennis.

This is not poetry.

Is it?

No. It’s not.

It’s barely writing.

However, I’m editing this now and as I do, Dave Matthews sings Warehouse from the Wetlands Preserve. I just “Googled” the track. It’s from over twenty years ago.

Google, among other things, didn’t exist then.

1993.

Dave was just starting out and I just started college – and like so many other people, it’s pretty much the same thing.

As the Bill Hader impression goes:

“Hi, I’m Dave Matthews. Remember me, from college?”

The band’s still around and touring. There was a time when I was catching them every chance I could get. Haven’t seen them live since…hell, since the last time I watched St. Elmo’s Fire.

The Dave Matthews Band had been together longer than The Beatles and the older I get, it seems like most bands were together longer than The Beatles, and yet no one seems to have permeated the ether quite like they did.

Paul McCartney’s still around. Still touring. Still making albums. I haven’t heard it, but did Paul McCartney and Kanye West do a song together? As a rule, I don’t listen to Kanye so I’m not really that curious. Disregard that question.

There’s a little bit irony to the fact that I added that while editing, being the purpose of editing is to remove the things that should be ignored. This is my second pass, by the way – I’m keeping it in.

This really isn’t writing. It’s thinking in public.

But I don’t know how many eyes are on this thing so it’s kind of like exposing yourself in a dark alley to no one. Not that I’ve ever done that, but that doesn’t really diminish the creepy image, does it?

Van Morrison is singing “Hungry For Your Love” while I edit. On the first pass Louis Armstrong was singing “Don’t Forget to Mess Around”. For better or worse, I think it’s safe to say it’s just another one of the many things I haven’t forgotten.