at the movies

it seems i've spent more time in cinemas in the past week than i have since the fall of 1999, when i roamed the streets of Manhattan late at night with a bottle of gin and a bag full of tonic water. there was a time when i might have called those the salad days, the high water mark of spending my mis-spent youth.

i remember watching 16mm on 11th Street at midnight, wondering how Bogey was going to get the black bird, after learning the truth and falling for Mary Astor.

i remember exiting a bus on the Lower East Side at 4am, wondering how i was going to get home, after a night spent riding in the dark and emptying a bottle.

i remember arrving at the Port Authority at 6am, wondering how i was going to leave a dancer who loved me, after a week spent vacationing in Gainesville and filling a journal.

but all this is beside the point.

the point is that nothing was spent (mis or otherwise);

there is endless purpose and meaning and rhythm and magic to all things - even in the days when we are too young to know the truth.