Peter Case

PC Blog

There used to be this thing called movies ’til dawn

After a long day worn out with the guys, rehearsing, yelling, working angles on each other and watching them develop, ducking figurative (and sometimes literal) punches, conforming and rebelling in equally stressed measure to the group think, my head doesn’t ache but my scalp is tight, my face hurts, I’m ready to go back to the second floor motel room I call home—a block and a half from the Capital Records tower—I go in and turn on the black & white—white plastic magnavox TV with the green tube & wobbly knobs—the tube flickers up to life growing from a dot, and reveals, Abbott & Costello fighting the mob, black & white & shades of grey, the actors   beat looking adults, they’ll always seem older than me, slicked back hair and pugnacious expressions with vaudeville timing, my mother told me once she’d seen them go by in Buffalo, a sighting she took seriously, wonder—stars—but—the safety, the comfort, of the late night movies—the plot creeps between used car ads—“come see Cal and his dog Spot!”—and Spot was a lion—a dream link—daydreams at night—relief—a dark room flickered and ghosted by Boston Blackie, the Mob, Detectives, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Natalie Wood, feet up, life suspended, the ache peels off like onion skin.

 

I’ve been gone from this blog from a while folks, busy, and on the road, which made it a lot harder to post. Lotsa gigs coming up in the new year, click on gigs, check it out, hope to see you out there! Putting songs together for a record too, but I want ’em to be great for you, so…. soon as possible!

2 comments

  1. Cool little batch of observations, Peter. “The ducking and developing is really quite a show to watch and “they’ll always seem older than me” in movies is something I always felt. Now it is “I’m older than what they were back then.” Happy New Year and I really dig your observations and stories in these blog, blog, blog things. Buzz