Insomnia is good for a lot of things like chasing sneezes and endless foggy spirals of recollection. I ended up on the beach at Jericho one night, the van hunkered alone in the darkened lot behind me. I used to go there after gigs or long hours in the studio to get the noise out of my head. The stillness and the waves helped me. I liked how the north shore mountains were like a dark tear in the fabric of the sky that revealed a deep void inset with grids of glowing lights. A poor imitation of the galaxies above. The grids of light reminded me of old television shows that had scared me when I was young and had stayed up past my bedtime huddled under blankets on the couch in the basement rec room as my dad snored in his easy chair. Androids, automatons, robots. The late night tv mainlined that stuff straight into my eyeballs. The show that thrilled me most was one where a mysterious doppleganger removed its mask to reveal a plate of hideous circuitry and two dull mechanical eyes. Little sensors flickering along the android’s exposed gum line like the lights that glittered along the quiet streets of the north shore suburbs. | image Andrei Tarkovsky. #amwriting #fiction #writersofinstagram #vancouver