INTERCONTINENTAL
DASHBOARD BRIEF
You may have achieved superstar status but that's
not cutting it with me. '90% off beautiful lace
dresses' - that's what the Spring sale sign said
at Altamont Dress Shop, but the confusion reigned
nonetheless. What exactly were they giving? My main
man Hanso, the gay guy who sells to women, was
just as confused. 'Why then do they want me to say?'
Constricted larynx and all the rest, flapping his hands
like a devilish one. He's a riot too. Smokes a cigarette
exactly like Dean Martin. I know, I know, who's that?
-
There I was 50 years ago, sitting in Franklin Hite's
apartment at 199 New Street in New Brunswick, up
on the roof watching the New York trains roll by - on
the turntable we were all supposed to be listening to the
newest Beatles thing : Abbey Road, or one of them, the
one with 'you never give me your money' and 'Maxwell's
Silver Hammer.' I can't remember what or why I cared.
He was a real hummer - bumming out on his wife
and coming home to hear new music.
-
So now that's all gone away - so is the New Brunswick
I speak of : all replaced, every store front and pizza joint
and bar, by the white buildings of Johnson and Johnson
downtown on one side, and a brickfront line of fancied-up
restaurant storefronts on the other. just no comparison,
might as well be a different place entirely. And is.
-
What do you call it when they give away a town - sell
it outright to some highest corporate bidder who then
rips it all down and drives out the downtown people?
I call graft. I call it corruption. You want to call it
progress, go right ahead. I ain't to be stopping you.
The only thing running steady for now is the train.
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