March 4, 2014

March 4, 2014

In my heart, I felt like Nero when he was appointed title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).  But then again, I have always had a big head with respect to yours truly.  As I am in Tokyo now, I ran across a friend who collects American cars, and is an enormous fan of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, and today, he will get one of his custom-made cars.  He has a garage outside of Tokyo, where he keeps his Roth collection.  The most famous car that he owns is the 1961 “Beatnik Bandit” hot rod.  The most unusual aspect of this car that makes it really unique, besides being one-of-a-kind is that instead of a steering wheel, it has a joy stick.  How one can drive this car in excessive speed is beyond me, and when my friend offered me a ride in the grand “Beatnik Bandit, ” I was looking for an excuse to remove myself from his presence and his damn car.  But my brain didn’t work fast enough.  Also amazingly enough, the car had no seat belts, and I was just too polite to ask him about it.  Nevertheless I got in the car with him, and like Batman leaving the Batcave, we speeded off to the two lane blacktop in Tokyo, that is more a residential street than anything else.   I wish I could report what I saw, but I pretty much kept my eyes shut, because every time I opened them, it seems like we were approaching a moving object or an innocent bystander, who god forbid, was in the way of the “Beatnik Bandit.”  

My worst nightmare is when we approached the Shibuya street crossing in front of the station, but luckily the light was green and he speeded through Center Gai, which I thought was only a pedestrian area, but my driver didn’t seem to care.  We stopped in front of Tokyu Hands.  I looked at him and he seemed to be a drunk John Garfield on his last hour on this planet.  I told him that I had to get something in the store, and he should just go on without me.  He, being very respectful, said he will wait for me.  I left his car with wobbly legs and made the decision to run away.  I couldn’t deal with the Pearl White experience of maybe facing death around the corner.   I snuck around the building, and ran into Union Disk’s basement.  There I felt safe, and not only that, but found a French EP by Barney Wilen.  But as far as I know, he may be still waiting for me in Shibuya with the damn “Beatnik Bandit. ”