Thursday, June 01, 2006
Flashback
It caught me by surprise.
I was walking down the street, striding, really - alone for the afternoon - trying to absorb the sights and sounds of an alien city, and to reach the Brewery District before sundown. I'd underestimated the distance and time was passing alarmingly quickly, so really I wasn't thinking about much more than walking at a brisk pace. It was a lovely clear day, albeit slightly chilly, and birds sang from amidst what sparse leaves the trees were wearing.
I glanced askance at nothing in particular, and stopped dead in my tracks.
Toronto is a very, very flat, and very, very large city. I hadnt truly appreciated it from the air, since, well a sprawling city is just another sprawling city from that high up... but standing in the middle of that road close to the water's edge, I saw it then.
The main street - the central dividing dotted line upon which I stood - stretched away into infinity, further than my eyes could see, vanishing into a pinpoint of converging lines.
And dotted at regular intervals (for Toronto is also a very, very planned city - much like New York) every ten meters or so, at every junction, were traffic lights, identical in every way.
The lights changed before my eyes, from red, to green - a hundred - or perhaps even more - lights fading out in choreographed splendour, and a hundred - or perhaps more - fading in, as one.
The thought arose, unbidden in my mind. Perhaps that one off stint as producer has done something to what few brains I have left.
But I thought then - what a perfect, perfect scene for a shot. The protagonist, and his female lead deep in conversation - or not - eyes never leaving each others', speaking with more than words in a tiny almost-freezeframe of eternity...
... and in the background, in soft focus (or perhaps not in focus at all) - a road to infinity, with a thousand lights flashing change in secret symphony.
I was walking down the street, striding, really - alone for the afternoon - trying to absorb the sights and sounds of an alien city, and to reach the Brewery District before sundown. I'd underestimated the distance and time was passing alarmingly quickly, so really I wasn't thinking about much more than walking at a brisk pace. It was a lovely clear day, albeit slightly chilly, and birds sang from amidst what sparse leaves the trees were wearing.
I glanced askance at nothing in particular, and stopped dead in my tracks.
Toronto is a very, very flat, and very, very large city. I hadnt truly appreciated it from the air, since, well a sprawling city is just another sprawling city from that high up... but standing in the middle of that road close to the water's edge, I saw it then.
The main street - the central dividing dotted line upon which I stood - stretched away into infinity, further than my eyes could see, vanishing into a pinpoint of converging lines.
And dotted at regular intervals (for Toronto is also a very, very planned city - much like New York) every ten meters or so, at every junction, were traffic lights, identical in every way.
The lights changed before my eyes, from red, to green - a hundred - or perhaps even more - lights fading out in choreographed splendour, and a hundred - or perhaps more - fading in, as one.
The thought arose, unbidden in my mind. Perhaps that one off stint as producer has done something to what few brains I have left.
But I thought then - what a perfect, perfect scene for a shot. The protagonist, and his female lead deep in conversation - or not - eyes never leaving each others', speaking with more than words in a tiny almost-freezeframe of eternity...
... and in the background, in soft focus (or perhaps not in focus at all) - a road to infinity, with a thousand lights flashing change in secret symphony.
