 |
 |
Possibly 'pre' Andrew, but it's more a film strip, & catches your sense of him well. I enjoyed the little trip. Doug On 3-Apr-07, at 3:49 AM, andrew burke wrote: > The day was Monday so I rose early and went out to second campus by > the uni bus at 7.20am. I taught freshmen Oral English until 10am and > then caught a taxi back home. It is not expensive to catch a taxi > here, but it is often exciting, if sometimes dangerous. Today the > driver was an anachronism in physical appearance. He looked exactly > like a cartoon version of a 1950s/early 1960s American hipster: about > 30 years old, in a wide-lapelled, double breasted jacket with a dark > shirt underneath, 'cool' sunglasses, a prickly black goatee beard with > matching moustache, and a crazy haircut not unlike an old flat-top > Kramer cut from those decades. When I sat down, he said 'Hell oh', > gunned the tincan taxi out into the traffic, then grinned and said, > all as one phrase, 'Hell oh sit down pleeze'. I liked his way of > driving - fearless, fast and lyrical. He drove like I imagine Dean > Moriarty of _On the Road_ fame would have driven – or maybe the real > man behind the wheel of Keroauc's novel, Neal Cassidy. My driver knew > where every inch of outside skin on his tincan was, and he ducked and > dived through the slenderest alleyways of traffic like some kind of > animal … In fact. that was it!, the tincan was an extension of himself > and he was ducking and jiving like an Aboriginal Aussie rules football > player. And when the opposition defence got too obstructive – four > lanes of raggedy parked traffic at the red light, with bicycles and > pedestrians all taking up any inch of space - he took off the road and > went around that corner on a broad footpath! Hah! He did it all so > effortlessly and with such clear-eyed athleticism that I just sat > there and marvelled. I don't know how he didn't hit anybody or cause > an accident, but he did it languorously, driving me home quicker and > smoother than any other taxi-driving maniac in this crazy city. > > He cool > He no need no driving school > He a crazy Zen-driving fool > Playing the road like he's shooting pool … > > > -- > Andrew > http://hispirits.blogspot.com/ > http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits > http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/ > > Douglas Barbour 11655 - 72 Avenue NW Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9 (780) 436 3320 http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy) http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664 No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener. Walter Benjamin