Exotic locations and romanticization

Just show me a picture of 1960s London and I'm gone. Gone into my imagination...not reality, I mean. Of course, for so long I've confused the two. Show me that pic and I'll imagine a place where producers scrounge the street for talent, musicians play the underground all day, theater blazes, art abounds. A free place for artists where the imagination and reality can finally mingle. A place where the opportunities are boundless! I imagine that because artists I admire, including David Bowie, emerged from that scene and I've always assumed that such people NEVER had to go to school, pay the rent, feel untalented, work away without recogition. Everything seemed ripe, twinkled. Like in the glossy photos in the music mags.

Well, I hope it's a sign that I'm growing up. I was just thinking how life is unglamorous and hard wherever you go. All the good stuff I read about in the glossies...those are golden moments born of the imagination. All the stories Bowie tells in his lyrics...they come from his imagination. I used to dream about moving to London after I graduate and have finally realized that no physical location can bring me to that liberated place I hear in Bowie music. I have to get there with my imagination. No more grand, escapist thoughts. Those are just a type of procrastination. It would be much better to surround myself with the best my community has to offer and then...get practicing.