NIGHT MOVES

My chronic procrastination during the day ....

My chronic procrastination during the day creates a driven urge to get something done late in the night, like a runner who finds himself behind on the last lap, or a horse three lengths back on the home stretch.

But sometimes I get into a mental vortex that paralyses me. Around midnight. Then I put on a coat, leash up Billy the jailhouse dog and go out to walk the Santa Monica streets. Exploring with nothing in mind.

I know the streets, the houses, the cars. It’s my neighborhood, but I’m always intrigued by the nighttime vision.  A land of a hundred tiny suns, some white dwarfs of dying stars , some  red giants of over exposed light. When I was filming for Terry Malick he once said I should overexpose scenes that are dark in nature.

My iPhone sees more than my eyes do.

I can see the ocean in daytime, not now. Sometimes sound of the surf.

 

So many neighbors….. neighbors that I don’t know…..

Imagined activity behind walls with an occasional witness peering out.

Billy the Dog - smells things that I can’t. His own private adventure.

It’s Santa Monica. There are only ghosts of people who’ve left cars and silence on the streets.

 The nights encourage imagination.