Running Down The Dream
out of all the live music experiences i’ve had in my life, there are a select few that stand out as the most monumental and life-altering. one of the standout moments was at a randall’s island concert in new york in 2006. i had won a drawing through a local radio station in seattle for round trip airfare, accommodations and tickets to the show for two almost by default since - from what i understand - no one else even tried. the station had come out to everett for a weeknight show that a friend was headlining and it was a dud - sometimes in seattle even the best acts played to empty rooms. a couple days after the show, i got a call from the radio station - it was an unknown number so i almost didn’t pick up, but i’m by nature a curious person so i took the call. they told me i’d won and that i needed to pick someone to go with me and come get the tickets by the following monday. of course my first thought was to find a female companion to bring along, so i spent the weekend working on my woo game. after that totally failed, i ended up bringing the guitar player in the band i was in at the time, who was one of the coolest dudes i’ve ever known.
the trip to new york was my first, and much in the way that a random trip to seattle a few years earlier had foreshadowed an unexpected residency in the pacific northwest, this trip ended up being a bit of foreshadowing for a move to the big apple five years later. we spent some time walking around the city on our first of the three days we stayed in the city, walking through times square and visiting the massive crater that was the site of the 9/11 terror attack. all of it was so surreal and i’ll just skip over the feels from that day to avoid losing track of th narrative here.
after a full day of enjoying the city, the next morning we headed out to randall’s island for the concert, which was being put on by heineken, and included a wide array of artists, notables being busta rhymes, ll cool j, the foo fighters and as today’s headline would suggest, tom petty. the show was pretty packed, with two stages running most of the day, and there were some other amazing artists i’d never heard of on the second stage. the only problem with the show was that drinks were way too expensive - heineken was kind enough to cover our grave and entrance expenses, but they cut us off at the tap. jian and i both got one beer, but neither of us had a lot of cash so that was about all we could afford. there were plenty of wiffs of good weed in the air, though, so i grabbed jian by one shoulder and said something to the order that he should follow me and i would find us a circle to join. i weaved my way through the crowd, looking hopefully at every circle of smokers we passed but none looked very inviting - these new york smokers were not your sharing is caring seattle types. after only a couple of minutes, though, as i was approaching a circle of what looked to be some affluent young dilettantes, one of the girls who was puffing lazily at a massive joint looked me directly in the eyes and threw the finger-length, still burning joint to the ground. without slowing down or missing a step, i casually leaned down and scooped it up, and kept walking for a few dozen yards before stopping taking a massive pull, and turning around to blow a cloud of sour diesel into jian’s delightfully surprised face. he hadn’t even realized i had picked up the joint and we happily puffed away for several minutes, all of the soreness from a cramped flight and a long day of walking around the city falling off our bones.
pleasantly stoned, we made our way to the stage and took in the wonder that was ll cool j from the front row. he was followed by foo fighters, who put on an amazing show. and then tom petty and the heartbreakers took the stage and rocked my fucking world. they played long, live versions of every song that you’d want to hear, and of course during last dance with mary jane, the whole crowd started passing around joints, all of the previous reticence to share gone up in smoke. at some point a girl in a miniskirt decided she wanted to ride on my shoulders for a song, and i was happy to oblige. after her not-so-free minded male friend found her there, he kindly towed her away, giving me a scowl that i shrugged off. once they were out of sight and mind, the pulsing music began, and i was struck full force with a musical epiphany in the form of an 18-minute long, unearthly rendition of running down the dream. to this day, i have a visceral memory of every detail of that performance.
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cut forward to today. working a full-time job while also trying to run down a full-time set of aspirations leaves very little time for sleep, or even rest for that matter. after slogging it out for a full day saturday at the editing desk, and then knocking out a couple of hours of edits on sunday, i shot an event from 6:30pm to 10pm last night and didn’t make it home until well after midnight. and of course i was out of bed before 7am as per the usual weekday routine to help shanima get out the door before getting ready to leave for work myself.
last night, stock and i were talking, and i think we’re going to be raising the bar on our mutual accountability. we both have things we struggle with when it comes to budgeting time and resources, and while our daily voice memo exchanges and blog posts have been a means of encouraging progress, we both think it’s time for another microevolutionary step. we are committed to running down the dream, even if it means we will have a little less time for dreaming (within reason).