Saturday, July 30, 2016

If you believe in the power of magic

"if you believe in the power of magic/it's all a fantasy/
but if you need to believe in someone/just pretend it's me"
Don't Answer Me
Alan Parsons Project

This chapter looks like a graphic novel.
Like the video from 1984, a femme fatal and him a detective.  Or maybe they were a series of those famous paintings come to life, by Roy Lichenstein.  Stills by Cindy Sherman, untitled.

He believes in the power of magic, that's the funny thing.
And he knows it's all a fantasy.
He's the magician/musician.

And he also knows the most magic moments between them are the times when there is no audience.  When they are both caught up in the music.
When they dance around like Fred Astaire & Ginger in those smelly bars after hours or before the shows start.
She's taught him how not to be afraid, of himself of the people, of the EVERYTHING.

And still, he's stupid enough not to trust her and the magic.

Because he's used to the temporary magic.  And he knows that they would kill each other if they ever tried to domesticate each other.

He ran out one night to buy more water(cds??? BW STORY IN.Girls) because the joint ran out, left her onstage to work through her 3 solid songs, then her awkward 3, and then just a few long monologues, until he shows up, casually.

They had a giant fight in the car.  She threatens to quit (again). He was slightly stoned and not interested in her being a drag.  She sent him a long letter, which he threw in the trash before reading.

2 weeks later, she calls him about a friend of hers. She had to call 911.  Her new boyfriend is fine, she says, but she's not.

Years later, he comforts her when the guy(L) finally offs himself successfully.  She's in shock.  The one noble gesture he had was to wish the guy had gotten better on his own.  But he also knew what that was like, being the one on the edge, and surviving.  And being one of the survivors.  His other noble moment was vowing to himself never to come close again, not for her sake.  Not when he saw what this was doing to her.

That was one of their many goodbyes.  In the rain. He drops her off and they don't see each other for a year.

But he comes back, he calls her up, he gets her on a tour, one of his tiny tours.  Never let the girls think they control you.  And the great wave of something easy, something exciting, he looked forward to seeing her.  To being stuck in a car with her.  Even in traffic.

==
PLAY SCENE: CAR: BRUSHING TEETH
Einstein's theory of relativity.
Sitting on a hot stove can seem like an hour and sitting with a beautiful girl for an hour can seem like seconds.  Sitting in traffic with each other was a dubious honor, you never knew when they'd get in a huge fight.

The time they shared a soda. He found it in the back and it wasn't too hot.  She accepted it even after he had drunk from it. As if the spittle wasn't anything big.

Then he started brushing his teeth.  In the middle of a busy intersection in Brooklyn.

And she started laughing-what?? He was genuinely surprised. (leftover from his alcoholic days)

And then there was the accident.  He took off the right hand side rear view mirror.  Which he wasn't planning to fix. And there was no insurance.

What if the cops stop you?  And you don't have insurance?  What about the DOG? They'll arrest you and take the dog to the pound! And I won't bail you out!

Look, mister, I think you are terrific.  Not the STAR you seem to think you are, I like the crazy guy who brushes his teeth and plays to 3 people in deadbeat bars in New Jersey!  But I can't love you if you don't even love yourself.  I can accept things if you don't love me, but I can't scrounge up enough love to keep you alive.  You have to respect your life and yourself enough.

Come back when I'm not the only one who loves you. (She slams the door & leaves him alone in the car)
On the Air (end, HERE!!!)
On the Road
On the Record