Limelight

Woke up to a classic last minute dream...

I was at a Rush concert. I know they usually play arenas, but this one was in a small, dim, low-ceilinged room, sparsely attended, perhaps half-full, maybe 100 people, mostly by kids (young enough that they wouldn't have been interested in Rush, that's much is clear). It's before the show and there's a definite buzz in the air as everyone is waiting for the curtain to rise and our heroes from the Great White North to hit the stage. It's already hot, sweaty. The anticipation is palpable. "Geddy! Geddy! Geddy!" is a constant chant. Suddenly there's a bit of a commotion over at the side of the room. At first I thought the band was coming in, but then I realize...the President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama have just walked in. The President is clearly stoked to be there, like he's been waiting all his life to see Rush, and he wears a huge smile as he works his way around the room, shaking hands with everyone. There's no Secret Service anywhere in sight. Date night for the Obamas? It's a Rush concert in a tiny underground club. He's wearing a tuxedo, like he came from somewhere else, but he doesn't look out of place and he's sure acting like this is where he wants to be. As he walks by, I'm struck by how tall he is, and then he shakes my hand and smiles like he's known me for years and hasn't seen me for longer. He leans down as if to say something...and tells me a joke, a "What do you call a...?" Dixie-cup kind of joke, which I immediately can't remember. I turn to the guys next to me and say, "Did you hear that joke? What did he say? I need to remember that for later!" They laugh and say "Oh was it this one?" and proceed to start telling these long, elaborate jokes and I say, "No. It was a Dixie Cup joke!" The pre-concert music (for Rush, mind you) is Motown, and the President is working it out dawg to "Expressway to My Heart" so a sort of R&B mosh pit clears out to allow Obama room to move. He's getting down. Then the lights dim, the curtain rises...

All the world's indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage..

Then I woke up.