I'm Thinking about Radio Bar

OPENING MONOLOGUE

Over the last three newsletters, I’ve spent a lot of time explaining why you should be booing specific occupations, including billionaires.

I just want to make it clear that I said boo.

Boo. the. billionaires.

Today's reading

• Disintegration

• King and Lynch

• “What the f#ck was that?”

• King…again?

Disintegration

People born after 9/11 will never understand what airports used to be. I remember walking off a plane and right into the arms of my grandparents because everyone was allowed at the gate. I remember going through Philadelphia International so often between 1999 and 2000 that when my belt buckle set off the metal detector (again!), the security guy waved me through by name because he remembered me. And the best: I remember playing Hide and Seek at Tampa International in the middle of the night.

The games of Hide and Seek were around 1995. Back then, a group of us would pick up Chinese food and park at the top of the airport’s short-term parking garage. At night, you’d get a stunning view of Tampa Bay, including the city itself. 

Every 30 minutes or so, security would drive by and ask us how we were doing. We found out later that they did this because the location had an unusually high suicide rate. 

My buddy Dave and I would get there first. Dave’s car had a pretty good sound system and we’d listen to albums like Alice in Chains’ Jar of Flies and the Cure’s Disintegration, eat our Chinese food, and wait for everyone else to arrive. Looking back now, sometimes the waiting was the best part, just listening to music and talking about the future with Dave.

(Speaking of sound system, here’s a funny story: I was working in a pharmacy at the time and one of the pharmacists had bought a new luxury car. He’d always brag about the sound system. One day, we ordered lunch and he threw me his car keys to go pick up the food. “Check out the sound system, Christian. I mean, really crank that music up!” he said. “I want to hear the music inside the store as you drive by.” So I got into his car — arguably the nicest car I ever drove at the time —  and I turned that music up just like he asked. I don’t know if it was because I was following orders or the fact that I was born severely hearing impaired, but when I returned the car, every speaker had been blown out.)

Once our friends showed up, we’d establish the terrain (usually the main terminal and one or two other terminals) and the games would begin. 

Despite being advertised as an international airport, TIA was usually deserted by eleven in the evening. The main terminal was connected to other terminals with their own respective monorails (at least until 2020). So it wouldn’t be uncommon to be on the monorail and see the person who was “it” passing you by in the other direction. For this reason alone, a typical game could go on for a long time. It was glorious. And ridiculous.

If anyone was ever bothered by a bunch of college students running around and acting like children, we never saw it. The cleaning crew sometimes pointed out good hiding spots and security usually laughed once they realized what we were doing.  

We’d play until we ran out of steam, wander back to our cars upstairs, and then debate whether to go to a club in the city.

Thinking back, I’m dumbfounded by the access of it all. The airport was another large open space, like a mall or city center. But that’s what the 90s felt like as a whole — complete access.

It’s what we thought the 21st century was going to feel like — boundless possibilities.

Tag. You’re it.

King and Lynch

I read three Stephen King books last week: From A Buick 8 (second reading), Cell (second reading), and Let it Bleed, and David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity.

I had previously listened to the audiobook version of Cell in 2008, and either the listening experience was working from a different, better draft of the novel or I was just more forgiving because I was under the impression that this was a good book. While it has some fun ideas, it never quite comes together in a satisfying way. And any story about a father trying to get to his son during an apocalyptic scenario works much better if the main character isn’t insufferable.

I know people see From a Buick 8 as one of King’s lesser works, but I really enjoy when he sets up vast mysteries that don’t have easy answers (he also does this in The Colorado Kid, and most recently in “Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream” from You Like It Darker). I mean, King is talking about life here, but more importantly, he’s exploring how even the most amazing and horrifying aspects of life can become mundane — so the answer becomes beside the point. And just because you have access to something extraordinary (like a car that acts as a portal to another dimension) doesn’t mean that you’re special, especially if you choose to ignore life in the process.

I’ve had Holly sitting on my shelf for a while, but I wanted to get through If It Bleeds (the fifth book in the Holly series) first. Some of this has to do with the fact that he recaps (spoils) previous stories in every book, but mostly because King rarely does serials. At this point, Holly Gibney has blown past the Jack Sawyer stories and is starting to compete with The Dark Tower series. Seeing King willing to return to a character again and again feels like a real gift, so I want to experience these books in chronological order.

I also like how the Holly stories pivot from crime to supernatural stories, where The Outsider and Let It Bleed build the series’ overarching mythology, and the other books work as Crime of the Week stories. I appreciate both types of stories, mostly because I’m here for Gibney. But looking at those mythology stories, it does feel like she’s on a collision course with Pennywise.

This week’s palette cleanser was David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. While delightful in its own right, your enjoyment of this book comes down to where you fall with Lynch. And maybe transcendental meditation, because it comes up a lot. If you’re looking for a quick boost of inspiration — especially in Lynch’s aw-shucks sort of way — then you’ll like this one, but if you’re looking for answers about Lynch’s work, you’ll walk away disappointed.

“What the f#ck was that?”

I love this story from Thomas Jane about the first time the cast did a table read of the script for Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher (2003).

King…again?

Two sections about Stephen King this week? I know it feels like I want this letter to be all about King. I’ll admit, I only want to talk about King and his work in real life. I know I’m going to get this out of my system eventually.

Maybe.

There used to be a club called Radio Bar here in Wroclaw. Not my kind of place, but it was hugely popular for many years. Once, my friend Jason met a young woman there and they went on a date.

“What do you like to do?” Jason asked.

She said, “Go to Radio Bar.”

“Do you have hobbies?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Go to Radio Bar.”

Jason realized that every conversation would come back to Radio Bar no matter what he talked about. Finally, he asked, “What do you like to do when you’re not at Radio Bar?”

She was silent for a few seconds. She said, “I think about going to Radio Bar.”

When it comes to King, I think I understand her now.