Monday, August 10, 2009

Summer in the city

ATLANTA -- I heard the honking cars this morning and I didn't need to go outside to to know what was happening. Monday morning traffic in the big city. No sirens, though -- at least at the moment.

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck gettin' dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city


Nothing like a little Lovin' Spoonful to get you in a city-fied mood. Kind of weird. "Summer in the City'' has been covered by everybody from B.B. King to the Butthole Surfers, but it was John Sebastian who took it to No. 1. The same cat who sang "Welcome Back'' for the TV show Wecome Back Kotter. Damn, slipped into the past again.

Besides the traffic, which is legendary, Atlanta in August can be sizzling hot -- fry-an-egg-on-the-pavement hot -- and this August is no different. You can't afford to stray too far from the liquid refreshments.

And we'll need 'em today, Roberto and I will. It's moving day. In two more days my friend is headed to the other side of the world -- seven thousand miles, give or take a few hundred kilometers -- to Abu Frickin Dhabi. How strange is that?

Robert is packing up dishes and my mind wants to slip into Guy Clark's "L.A. Freeway'', but Paul Simon has a grip on us right now. He's singing "Something So Right'' and I swear at this moment I have never heard a more beautiful song.

It's too late to fight this thing...

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