Friday, September 11, 2009

Eight Possible Heavens

1) A long night in a small Texas nightclub, circa. 1977, with one or both of my old friends Steve C. and Simon R. On the table in front of us: cold, cold Lone Star Bock, and a big sloppy plate of nachos with beans, cheese and jalapenos. Onstage? ZZ Top, fresh from recording El Loco, and ready to play till the cows come home.

2) An endless tour of the Earth, with Anette (in her hiking boots and black leather jacket), with enough time and information to eat well in every town. And some sort of universal translator device that would enable us to talk to taxi drivers and bartenders everywhere. First stop: the Norwegian town where my great grandparents were born.

3) An endless tour of the Universe, with Anette (wearing the same outfit), but also with Adinah and V., in a rocket ship with a Gottlieb pinball machine onboard.

4) An extremely comfortable (and well-lit) Moroccan lair, amazingly stocked with every great or important book ever published. And the time to read and understand them all, with the option of interviews and explanations from the authors in the flesh.

5) Reincarnation as a super-intelligent (and immortal) bird, flying from one cozy aerie to another, in the Himalayas.

6) Command of an elite squad of ferocious monsters—including the Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon—who would jet all over the place, righting wrongs, fighting injustices and never actually hurting anyone!

7) The slow and delicious discovery, then mastery, of an entirely new and unprecedented form of music.

8) The ability to channel surf between all of the previous seven Heavens, at will, Forever.

1 comment:

Ed Ward said...

Only ONE Gottlieb machine? Re-think this one, please.