Bikes, Breezes & Freedom

Some days there is an energy in the air, a restlessness that permeates every fiber whispering subconsciously that escape is necessary if not mandatory. Yearning to leave the humdrum, everyday routine treadmill behind  tearing the fabric of the universe open  to make entry into an alternate reality not only feasible but immediately attainable. Freedom grasped in daydreams, esthetics required for healing.

Like modern Don Quixote’s riding Harleys into the sunset in their gold plated armor, tilting at the windmills of corporate reality, educational entropy and political expedience hoping to elude the sausage creature and defeat, against all odds. Pasion and style breaking free from the norm, tossing aside suits and ties like creatures shedding skin, butterfly or reptile unknown, unknowable, growing, evolving into something more, bigger, better, inhibitions lost along with respect for taught norms. Fighting to keep your soul intact in a soulless world. Ranting against gleeful authority figures flexing their muscles at the drop of a hat when child like missteps fail to anticipate consequences.

When life is tearing in so many opposing directions that fleeing anywhere seems preferable to standing still. When the nights seem endless and dark. When nothing seems easy.  When wildness takes hold,  flying down the open road takes the edge off. Is it real or a dream?  Turning the page is just not that easy. There are sudden stops and set backs, false trails forward and retraced steps back. Exsistental rambling searching for something more, not knowing exactly what, but knowing it’s out there, somewhere…

Snowballs, Serendipity and Suicide Bunnies

I love bookstores and at The Grove there is one that is three stories high.  Walking in the front door you find new releases, periodicals, music and movies. At the top of the escalator are rock and roll, cookbooks, theatre and art. The second escalator going up lets one out near a section on Los Angeles. Walking around the top floor one can find everything from children’s books to classics, from business to cartoons and erotic reading can be found next to the self help section. The coffee shop on the third floor tempts one to while away the hours on the balcony, if only one had the time.

While Suicide Bunnies might not be everyone’s style, every teenage boy should read Jeremy & Mom  with their mother. Getting Fuzzy is always a treat as is playing with a Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat.

Captain Underpants flies through the air as the Cat in the Hat causes fascinatingly entertaining havoc. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle works her magic on disobedient children and Fluffy  rules the classroom. Love You Forever will make you cry and the Teddy Bear’s Picnic will make you want to dance. Catwings will make you believe cats can fly, pink dinosaurs will make you believe in Serendipity and The Crocodile’s Masterpiece really is one. Who can resist a big red book of fairy tales, Woodland Tales or Tales from Fern Hollow? The Little Fur Family is wonderful and Beatrix Potter can’t be beat.

Real vampire books by authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,  Ann Rice  and the ultimate vampire novelist: Bram Stoker can be found there but I prefer books about werewolves like those written by Ann Rice’s sister, there's just something about wolves...

They have just about everything from quantum physics to Brain Droppings to Snowballs. Disparate as they may seem connections can be found between science and belief in an infinite being. Whether flying to new heights,  taking a journey of discovery, riding a motorcycle down the highway  or a convertible across the desert voyages of discovery exploring life, sanity and insanity can be found at every hand.

There is something sensual about old books with their musty vanilla scent, leather covers, gilt edges, pen and ink etchings, ribbon place markers and feathered fly leaves that is tactile as well as intellectual. While really old books won’t be found in this store, new stories in old style bindings can be found there. There is something magical about a good bookstore and the treasures it contains…