III. ADSPOT

"Emma, you're the first to enter ADSPOT
In twenty years. When your mom died, mein gott."
"Grandpop, I can't believe that all this time
We've been sitting on our own fat behinds
Ticking off limitations in our minds
With a private entrance to the Main Line!"
"It's been my little secret, granddaughter,
Since your first words, when you said,'Mother'
[amp.] Vern.' on this spot on your 3rd birthday.
I still think, Em, one second, either way..."
"Do we have to re-live this tragedy?
I love you, Grandad, that's how much to me--
You--I don't care about the fucking past!"
"Good! Let's get in and you have a nice trip.
Here comes the Nine-Ten...I gave her the slip!"

"Grandad Vern, what's with Emma? Where'd she go?"
"Try to keep up, Tex. I don't mean you're slow."
"Dad, what about Tex and me? ..the next train?"
"I can't tell you everything. Use your brain!
How much of this do need I unravel?
I keep saying ADSPOT isn't time travel!"
"I thought we'd go to New York or London."
"Yeah! Now I hear you talking, grandson!
One more piece of advice, dere, genius boy:
This here ADSPOT is an expensive toy.
If you want to make art, then make art, Tex."
"And if I want to make love, Gramps, have sex?
Man! This thing is suddenly personal.
'I know you are, but what am I,' you know?"

"Antoine, Antoine, I've been (Whee-eww!) thinking:
What in the world, son, have you been drinking?
It isn't cough syrup, it isn't pop..."
"It's frankly those two and gin, Grandpop."
"Antoine, my son, you're a chem genius."
"I would never let that come between us.
What does it mean when you say, dear Father,
'Picture yourself on a boat in the future'?"
"I mean, never, ever abandon your own kids!
Forgive them everything you goddamn did.
But, seriously, that wasn't my line."
"I could have sworn I heard you right this time.
I think my job is to make a collage,
Expressing all my musical knowledge,

"Like Blake and Haworth on Sgt. Pepper ."
"Whatever you say--you're the professor!"
"Do you mean I'm smart? It's a heart-to-heart!"
"For the man you are, I admit my part."
"What about this secret Main Line portal?"
"Like Philly's giant heart it's aortal."
"At the Franklin Institute, my daddy?"
"This vein leads all the way to Wilkes Barre!
Incidentally, straight to Ken Kesey,
Whom Emma's seeing; It should be easy.
Sometimes a Great Notion  was HBO's
First broadcast--downtown Wilkes-Barre, you know.
That's Peter, LSD, Ken and ADSPOT:
Before you begin, what have I forgot?"






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(Above) Poster and trailer for the Paul Newman/Lee Remick film of Ken Kesey's second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, the first feature shown on the newfangled HBO cable network in 1972, to 325 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, PA. (Below) A plaster-and-paint, walk-through heart was one of the most popular Franklin Institute attractions in the 60s, and has been promoted recently as an exotic wedding reception locale.