A Road and a Song

This post went up two years ago, a few weeks after I had returned from the Pacific Northwest Museum Tour, a ten-day car trip that took me all the way to Vancouver, British Columbia so that I could look at art at all of the major museums along the way.

I'm rolling to the crib. I've got my iPod hooked into my stereo,and the music is bumping. The back window is rattling, the windows are down, it's dark.

I'm in the country, east of Madera, and this is the best part of the drive, going north on Road 36 between Avenue 9 and Avenue 12, straight and rough and hilly. DJ Cam's Summer in Parisis pumping from my Polks as I make the right from Avenue 9 on to Road36. First, there's a drummer working the ride cymbal with his right and playing on the rim of his snare with his left. The pianist starts playing jazzy chords, and, already, I'm loving life and pressing down on the accelerator. Then the vocalist, Anggun, whisper-sings Paris in English and then in French.

summer in Paris
summer in Paris
I miss that kiss
summer in Paris

Goddamn it, now I want to go to Paris, and I'm scared of flying over large bodies of water. I don't care if the plane goes down, I just don't want to be eaten by sharks.

There's a trumpet solo, then a flute solo, then the pianist takes a turn, and the car is going faster and faster.