5am blues

Corbett | October 12, 2003 5:24 AM

Just closing up after a late night of NY House DJ mixing at the Living Room. We broke in our two new Denon turntables which was cool, and DJ Em and I made a mad last minute dash out for some cool Shure cartridges so they would actually work. Talk about some serious low tech. Two guys hunched over some little wires and tiny screws with mini screwdrivers trying to get the damned things lined up correctly.

Screwed my back again moving a drum kit. Stupid. Mortality is setting in. I used to do this 5am thing several nights a week. Now one or two just kill me. The drive home will be lit by an early am white haze, and littered with old people in underwear out on their bikes or taking walks. Irene and I'll discuss whether to stop for some hot do jiang and dan bing, and we'll skip because it's bad to eat so late, but will think about it all the way home. I'll ponder over how many hundreds of Taipei sunrises I've seen, each a little different, some dotted in rain, others pure tropical blue, some just smoggy and glazed. And I'll remember the sour smell of cigarettes and booze and perfume and sweat that watercolored my ex-jazz player life, and now is slowly seeping back again into my pallate as a club owner. Then I'll fall asleep with the TV on, and another day will pass, and some old memories will dissolve away while I sleep, and life in Taiwan will slowly start again when it becomes too hot to stay asleep, and then in that state of non-existence where drool has hardened and penis has softened, I'll open one eye and ask myself the same eternal question I've asked for over a decade, "What the fuck am I doing?"

Category: Ramble