My lady had gone to bed. I had killed a bottle of the grape and the remaining bottle of the champagne from the night before. I popped on the seventy-five inch and was looking for some music and some visual images worth listening to on YouTube. For whatever reason, known only to the gods of the cyberspace, I hit onto these music videos created by goth bands that were using visual images created by Ai to create their music videos.  There she was, this perfect goth goddess, dreamed of by goths of the 1980s, (like me). Dream of… But, never known… So unhaveble, as she did not exist in this reality of reality. Maybe the music was Ai generated, as well. I don’t know???
 
I think back to the later 1980s. There was this goth club located inside what had once been a roller-skating rink on the Sunset, B.L.V.D., just off of Western Ave., in Hollywood.  I had lived just a few blocks from it forever. I never went there then, however. But, my bud Venchinzo and I, hit that location quite a lot for the moment in time that it was in existence as a goth club. …Just walked right through the door on Saturday nights, no fee required of us. We were known. It was a good time. A good time, back then…
 
In that same era… I remember the Sisters of Mercy were still real, still recording music, and still on tour. Having been living in London, back when they were first forming, I was there when that scene was born. …That was my scene. We, Venchinzo and I, saw them whenever they hit L.A., or in the there-abouts…
 
There was this one time, Venchinzo and I hit this place over on Vine Street in Hollywood to see them perform. We were listening to the sound, slamming back some beers, when I noticed this girl sitting under one of the tables. Yes, under one of the tables. She literally was sitting there, under one of the tables as most of the crowd was dancing and listening and stuff. Me being me, I had to explore…
 
I climbed under the table with her. Ask her the, “What’s up?” Nothing really… She had just arrived from Australia. ...Saw they were playing, and showed up. Okay…
 
We spend the rest of the night together. I drove Venchinzo, her and I, over to her pad in my 356. We sat there, in the living room drinking some cheap red wine.
 
I thought it was her crib. Nice little apartment over off of Hollywood Blvd. over by Vermont. There was a Strat on a stand. I grabbed the axe, and displayed my licks. “Hey, could you guys keep it down,” came the voice of a guy, one time, two times, three times. “Who is that,” I finally asked, thinking it must be her boyfriend, roommate, or something like that??? As it turned out, the girl had just arrived. Somehow, she had hooked up with these people, a guy and his woman, who would let her crash. How that hook-up came about, I have no idea. This was before the internet as we now know it. So??? But, the fact was, they didn’t even know each other before that night but they gave her a place to stay. Weird! “Sorry for the noise, dude.”
 
Eventually, we decided to bail out. The girl, I guess jet-lagged, was up for the all-night, like me. I dropped Venchinzo off at his pad in Venice. The girl and I, hit the night. We walked on the beach in the moonlight, and all of that kind of stuff that is seen in the movies.  But, nothing really jumped off. …Though I had hoped it would.
 
Come the sunrise, I took her to this AM café I liked in Manhattan Beach. We dank some cappuccinos and ate a croissant or two. Post that, I drove her back to her Hollywood crib, as the sun was blasting through my AM eyes. I realized at that point to never leave home without sunglasses again. I have very sensitive eyes.
 
After dropping her off in Hollywood, I had to drive all the way back to my crib in Hermosa, through the L.A. AM traffic, holding nada in my hand but this story to tell you.
 
Never really talked to her again after that. I saw her a bit later on, however. I had met my lady by that point, and we were hitting up this sushi bar in NoHo. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were sitting next to us. This was before they got married and you could tell all that BS of infatuation was in the air between them. But that was/this is L.A. Sitting next to celebrities is not all that rare and (really) no big deal!
 
The girl, she was now a waitress at this restaurant. I guess I should say, “Server,” as that is now the expected and proper word. “Scott, how are you!” For a moment, I didn’t even know who she was. She no longer was a goth goddess. Just a very average looking person in a server’s outfit. Then, she told me, and I remembered… A goth princess sitting under the table at a Sisters of Mercy concert. Wow…
 
But that was then. This is now. Then, there was no Ai. No perfect goth goddess portrayed on the TV screen. Now, it is all just a click away.
 
So again, I sit here, (late into the all night), writing on these typing keys. Remembering what was, in an analogue world. And questioning, was it really any better?
 
After that, on my TV screen, an early video by the band, Twin Tribes, Heart & Feather came up. Mimicking a style of music developed back, in the way-back when. Which is actually what inspired this piece as it got me to thinking about an era long gone past.
 
Was it better then or now??? That is the question that all people of past generations must ask. Your life, your answer.