“And the storm kept blowing the angel around the room,” Eudemon thought. He remembered going to see Laurie Anderson in Chicago, many years ago. She was at a record store before her performance and fans were lined up with their purchases to be signed. She had become a star. Eudemon found an obscure record with William Burroughs, John Giorno, and Laurie posing on the cover.
He lined up to have her sign the album. She sat at a low table, resulting in the supplicants having to kneel to have her sign. Eudemon knelt and asked her about the lyrics of a song as she drew a bubble circle over Burrough’s head. “Hi,” she made him say. “What did ‘Milwaukee, Big dogs!’ mean?” She smiled. She took pity. It is all about enigma, you goof. It means nothing and everything or whatever you can imagine it means. But she didn’t say that. She just smiled and said something like, “Well, ya know, just whatever came into my head. Milwaukee, Big Dogs!”
Blam.
Eudemon’s feet hit the floor with power. He was spinning around the room with a woman less than half his size in hand. He was in Milwaukee and learning about Big Dogs. It was Friday night at Linneman’s, and a party was raging. The last band was Dr. Chow’s Love Medicine…or the Humboldt Reservoir Dogs. They were going by the dog name that night. The Dr. had the crowd in a frenzy. Eudemon had been sitting watching the dancers, catching his breath, when the young woman grabbed his hand and pulled him to the dance floor. She wore a Mona Lisa smile as she pulled him off the chair. Eudemon was taken by surprise. He desperately tried to lead her around the floor, but to no avail. She was bouncing around with incredible force. He tried to hang on, to keep her on the planet, but sometimes he missed the catch and she went flying into orbit, only for a moment, then to crash to earth a second later and then leap up again and spin again. It was contagious.
He caught her eye for a moment. She said, “This is fun!” and laughed, and then off again. And on and on it went… until the Humboldt Reservoir Dogs had their day and the Dr. had enough of his own medicine and was sated. Milwaukee. Big Dogs.