Boom-boom-boom, boom! Clang, clang, clang!

Last night I had a ot of small, bite-sized dreams -- or maybe several long but very episodic dreams -- only one episode of which I can remember. I was on Columbus Ave. in North Beach, standing across the street from where City Lights Books was supposed to be -- only there was no bookstore. I looked up and down the street to make sure I was in the right block, but there was nothing, only nondescript shops like vacuum cleaner repair shops, the kind you find out on the first ten blocks of Balboa Ave. in the Richmond. It was as if I were in an alternate universe where City Lights had gone out of business in 1967 and North Beach had turned into a boring residential neighborhood with a few boring shops that nobody would want to go to. It was so sad.

Perhaps that's why I found myself down there this afternoon. I was driving up Kearny St. in the drizzle, noticing the bleachers going up and the costumed drum and bugle corps walking by, and I realized the Chinese New Year's parade was tonight. Katia called and we talked about publicity for her upcoming book Crashing America, which will be released this fall by Alyson Press.

I walked around in the drizzle and went to the Lusty Lady and had an early dinner at a nice joint on Broadway where Little Joe's used to be. And I went by City Lights just to make sure it was there.

Then I decided to stay for the Chinese parade, which I hadn't seen in, like, 20 years. I found myself a vantage point by standing on top of a newsrack, and watched the parade go by. It's a little disorganized; the LGBT Freedom Day parade is run with military precision compared to the Chinese parade. They had several marching bands from suburban high schools -- suburban schools being the only ones with enough money for things like marching bands these days. Unfortunately, marching bands no longer play marches, strangely enough. One played "She Loves You" and another played "Ode to Joy." Finally after about the third one had gone by, I shouted, "Play a freakin' march already!"

After about 90 minutes I got off my newsrack and made my way to the car. There was more parade coming, but I was tired and cold of standing on a metal box in the rain, and the cats needed feeding. So I came home.