10.4.02 – manchester NH, tarrytown NY, wilkes-barre PA, bethel CT
Who needs sleep? Well you’re never gonna get it
Who needs sleep? Tell me what’s that for
Who needs sleep? Be happy with what you’re getting
There’s a guy who’s been awake since the second world war
                 – the barenaked ladies
i found vermont to be most agreeable. it’s full of hippies and recycling and vegetarian food: a little piece of california plopped down amid rolling hills of dense green forests. after vermont was a show in new hampshire, one in upstate new york, one in pennselvania, an overnight stop in connecticut and back to boston for a (much too) brief day off. i don’t get to see much of these towns, spending less than 24 hours in each one, but there is time between the motel rooms and peformances and not-quite-enough-sleep to absorb something of the pulse in the people i meet – theatre crews, the hotel clerks and cashiers and waitresses. all those elton-john-esque songs about how hard life is on the road have new sort of resonance now. there’s a meloncholy lurking in each new anynomous hotel room, in the sense of rootlessness, in the distance ringing loud in the long-distance phone calls. chain stores provide a sense of familiarity and comfort – giant neon becons for target, home depot, starbucks, holiday inn looming above the interstate on dark, wet nights.