I’ve spent my entire life living my nights into the late nights. In fact, I can’t ever really remember a time when it wasn’t this way, from my very early childhood forward.
 
Once upon a time, in the long ago and the far-far away, during my time in high school, I used to spend my nights dancing into the night. It was Hollywood, so there was always something going on. But, when I wasn’t in the OUT, I would be watching old black and white movies on the T.V. …Back when all you had were the local stations, and you had to flip between, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 here in the L.A. Marketplace. Long, in the long time ago.
 
But, I wasn’t always home. Back then, in the way back when, by the time I was sixteen and had a car. Then/there I found pathways like the Sufi Movements and the Dances of Universal Peace. There, I found people of equal mind. We would, after the dances, then go to this one place, the last reaming Coffee House of an era long gone past. We would sit there until way too late in the late night, discussing all those things that didn’t really matter like god, life, mysticism, love, and all such things. I’d rarely be home before two or three in the AM. Then, I had to get up and go to school.
 
Of course, there was my main wayward bud of the era, Saturday Jim, who would take me into drunken realms that only those who can understand the mysticism of such endeavors could even come close to comprehending. Yes, it was an era.
 
Move forward, move on, late night on the mean streets of L.A., early in the ‘80s. Vinchenzo and I, deep into the late-night intoxicated bliss of club L.A. A world few could understand and fewer still even knew about.  It was hidden. I broke a lot of heart back then. Sorry! I wish I could have lived what they (you) had wanted me to live.
 
Then, there was the times in the solo. I used to hit these late-night spots like Full House Sea Food down Chinatown way, (back when it was opened most of the night). Jay Burgers over on Virgil and Santa Monica. The Pantry in DTLA. The twenty-four-hour Newsstand just off of Hollywood Blvd. And, even this little 24/7 coffee shop over in Gardena. Each holds a place in my heart/in my memory. Me, nothing was even truly sought before two in the AM.
 
Move to the now, to where I live now, maybe twenty some years deep. I have the vast view of the SoCal Costal Plane. Beautiful really. I sit out there in the dark of the late night, a glass of the grape in my hand, view the lights along the coastline and the stars in the sky. …Ponder the reality of the reality.
 
It seems in the times of now, however, there is so much May Gray, (as they call it). June Gloom. It’s like the coastline at night is all blank. All washed out with panes of oblivion. Can’t see much of anything. Sad really.
 
When this is the case, I sit deep in the late night. Maybe, like tonight, I write some words on this computer screen. I’ve been doing this/that since it could be done, so many decades deep. Maybe I will do some music. I do a lot of that. Or, maybe I’ll just sit back and try to find some Music Video worth watching or rewatching, and wash my mind into the void. Just something to take the mind away from the mind. Very Zen; yes? But, digging, searching, trying to find, it’s not so easy anymore. Not like it was when MTV was (basically) the only channel that there was and you took (musically) whatever it is they gave you. Now, a million/zillion channel options. All you can do is ENTER and try. It’s a terrible game, really. But, that/it is all it has become.
 
So, here we are. All this is lost to what is lost. Lost to what I desire to live. A life worth living. A dream worth experiencing. A promise made but never kept. …An experience worth experiencing… Promise me something or promise me nothing at all.
 
So, to all you people out there who think you know me. To all you people out there who believe you would like to know me. What do you bring to the table? A new dream worth dreaming? Or, just something for you to fill that void in you? A void defined by a lack of true experience?