Are You Going With Me

I felt inspired to write. It started as I was watching the previews in the movie theatre. There was a bit of dialogue from the movie "Crash" which rang true with me. A comment about Los Angeles...something about how in any other city of millions of people, say New York, you bump, rub and brush against people. But in Los Angeles--a city of 12 million--you hardly if ever brush against another person. This longing for human contact, the movie hypothesizes--the pushing, shoving, the navigating around the waddling tourists--is experienced through cars, perhaps through crashing into one another. A rather impacting statement.

As I'm thinking about this, I drive through the empty Sunday streets of Los Angeles. There's patches of traffic within the vicinity of the malls and popular hang outs, but once past, the streets are empty. Wilshire. As well as La Cienega. These are just some of the streets that I love. Similar to when I used to criss cross through the Sunday streets of New York, there is a familiarity between the two cities. Almost identical. And in both cases, it's an experience I've never really shared with another person. It seems to be a part of me meant only for me.

While driving I happen to play a CD that included a track from Metheny's Off Ramp album, "Are You Going With Me". I was about to skip the track but decided otherwise. For some reason it felt right for today. Listening to the melancholy but striking melody brought memories of my days in Cleveland--which is another long forgotten chapter in itself. I recall listening to that song over and over with drink in hand in that apartment. Sixteen stories high. Feelings which I had buried somewhere faraway emerged quietly as I mused how 20 years later my life had somehow reverted as I roamed the empty streets of Los Angeles. I suddenly had this intense desire to crash.