All Writers Should Murmur This Credo To Themselves
It has to do with treating reality as a dreamscape.
I was elbowing my way through Grand Central Station, early for the tour. An idiosyncratic tour guide (and hero of mine) was returning to New York City to guide people through his observations of the venerable train station, and I’d raced to make my reservation, afraid it’d be sold out. But there he was, all alone in a sea of passing commuters. As I approached, he pondered me, and then finally spoke.
“Are you improvising?” he asked mysteriously.
I hesitated. Did he mean in the cosmic sense, that we’re all making decisions on the fly?
“Yes,” I decided to say.
One thing I appreciate about the guide, “Speed” Levitch, is his wild, luminous phrasings. He once described Manhattan as “the middle of a melodrama happening on the backsides of rocks.” His double decker bus tours in the 90’s are the stuff of legend, infusing hilarious, insightful musings into what typically would be stick-to-the-script factoids dispensed to tourists. His zany, lyrical romps were chronicled in the documentary, “The Cruise,” and as a cameo in “Waking Life.” In short, I was game for whatever improvisational ride we’d be going on that day.
“But didn’t I mention the ongoing “wow”…
