Farewell to an Icon

I was backstage in the greenroom at a Laurie Anderson show, where I'd worked as a volunteer usher. I was exhausted, and sat down for a break on a ratty sofa. There was a TV on showing a baseball game. A guy came in and plopped down on the seat beside me. He asked if I wanted a beer- I said sure. He went to the fridge and got two icy cans, popped one for me. I took the can and did a double take when I realized who he was. He grinned, poked me in the shoulder, and said "get over it- I'm Lou Reed." I hope you are taking a walk on the wild side Lou! Thanks for the beer and the music! Say hi to Drella for me!

Poppy

Bisbee Afternoon

After a strange drive (the bridge over the San Pedro river was limited to one way traffic, so there was a long wait there, and there were hundreds of motorcyclists on the road as well) I was able to find a parking space and a seat in the nicest cafe within a hundred miles or so.  Bisbee Coffee Co. is, in fact, one of the best cafes anywhere.  It has a nice combo of inside and outside seating, is well lit and busy. The aroma of fresh coffee is intoxicating, and if you want to get an idea of what Bisbeeans are like, this is the place to be.
Its easy to forget that I live only 20 miles from this little bohemian haven.  Sierra Vista is bland by comparison.
Wandering the streets, its easy to believe that this city once rivaled San Francisco as the best city in the west.
Unlike most of the cities in southern Arizona, Bisbee actually has a main street and a downtown.  There is a place you can point to and say "that is Bisbee".  The streets are clean and well maintained for the most part, the buildings are colorful and attractive, the folk are friendly if not gregarious. Today there are no events here, but later this month Bisbee hosts a yearly race - which involves 1000 stairs in the city as part of the route.
Compared to other parts of southern AZ, Bisbee is cooler. The temperature here tends to be about 15 degrees cooler than Tucson, which means that even in the hottest parts of the summer its fairly comfortable here.
If you are an artist or a photographer, the place is a paradise.  

Ubik and Dreams

Eternal life in a spray bottle. Safe when used as directed.

At least once a year I stop in to visit Runciter and the other odd but intriguing characters in Philip K. Dick's Ubik, which remains one of my favorite novels.  It is a favorite for the same reason a painting becomes a favorite. In examining it, it always rewards me with something new, something I hadn't seen before.

Ubik is new every time I open it up.  The flow of the plot doesn't change.  Its not a sequential thing that changes, but an idea thing.  The questions Phil asked about philosophy in Ubik present different answers every time I read the book.  Half life, after life, death, birth are all discussed at length in context of the novel, and every time I read it new levels open up, while others close or just outright disappear.  

Under the facade of a science fiction story, Dick created a parable that is both timeless and beautiful.  It is also deeply disturbing.