DUNE Buggy

 

Spice Girls

 

 

 

 For only the third time

in over twenty months

Ray ventures out to meet the big screen 

as if it was a giant all devouring worm

 

 

Just four-over-sized letters on the marquee

Such momentous power and dignity

surely it will run for weeks

 

 

I'm over in Splash Pad park 

across a frantic boulevard  

launch time into near space

 

 

Masks shall be worn

beyond this point

 

 

 

 

 

I assume position for take off

 

 

The film unwinds for a very long time

Fortunately I saw David Lynch's version of the story 

and so was vaguely able to follow the rather grim and often dreary plot

The visual effects, style and design were certainly impressive 

in the sort of jaded ennui inherent in digitally enhanced cinema

 

As happened with the recent James Bond film,

and was more challenging in this talky film,

I cannot understand the dialogue due to the state of my hearing

and the broadness of the sound 

and that the dialogue is rarely seen spoken in close-up

 

I can understand the same scenes on my cell phone ear buds

But here the mighty Dolby system overwhelms my tired tympana

I can hear everything other than the words almost too intensely

 

 

 

It ends with the credits over a pulsing sand storm

 

 

I was outside on the sidewalk

 

 

While the credits were still rolling

 

 

 

 

 

A mere two and one half hour diversion

I blended in this long-lasting strain

and took an outside intermission to refresh my spice

my fuel of enchantment for the long galactic flight

 

It so happened I chose the final showing

on the theater's largest screen

After two weeks at the top it was stepping aside

I suspect it is not everyone's cup of spice tea

It was becoming old news as I watched it

 

 

 Reduced to second fiddle

it is written 

Smaller type now

on the same marquee were it loomed so large

on my way inside

 

 

 

 

Time has come 

for Ray to mount up and ride off

into West Oakland

 

 

 Just a pleasant wait for the #12 bus

across Grand Avenue

Lots of people passing on foot

Kinetics lights of the theater and the traffic
 in the new early dark

 

Another light-bulb overkill marquee
from the window of my passing bus

from a distant planet it's home to a spicy supper

 

 

 

4 November 2021