January 13, 2014

January 13, 2014

Usually I don't fall into a deep sleep on an airplane, but I did and when I woke up I felt totally misplaced being on a plane.  Perhaps because I was dreaming I was in my grandparents house in Topanga canyon, which was a home that brought me a sense of security and happiness.  Not Topanga mind you, but just the home in the Fernwood era of the canyon.

I have heard that the great TV comedian Ernie Kovacs died in a car accident in the canyon, but I think it was on Sunset Blvd, near the Beverly Hills Hotel. Nevertheless the image of Kovacs on TV as well as Robert Stack in "The Untouchables" brought a certain amount of joy to my youth.  I often imagine that I was dancing with Gwen Verdon at my grandparents' house.  I can't imagine why, due that the staircase from top floor to bottom was very narrow.  I can't imagine a dancer would find this staircase or house even remotely interesting.

The strange thing about the house in Topanga was that it was small.  Basically an one bedroom house with a small living room and a kitchen and dinning area downstairs with a large property surrounding the home.  But when I dream about the place there is all of sudden additional space - from the bedroom area.  It goes on to another part of the house, with an additional bathroom.  This only existed in my dream, but the funny thing is that I rarely ever go into my Grandparents' bedroom.  Not exactly off limits to me, but just a place that I never go or play in.  Nevertheless this room in my dreams becomes an enlarged space.  It seems that the expanded place has no one really living there, or maybe used as a vacation home?

Many years later in that home I would read the complete works of Jean Genet as well as the magnificent biography on Genet by Edmund White.  it amazes me that I would think about all of this somewhere over the Pacific ocean in very comfortable plane.