— First and foremost: there was the wild ocean.
— We walked down to Turtle Soup – a restaurant right on the water – we could see the heaving grey waves over the wall – which, on a calm day, you can’t see. You normally can just see the horizon, the blue ocean horizon. But on Saturday – the water was so high you could see the whitecaps rolling in. The air filled with flying chunks of sea foam. The wind so hard that Katie’s “dump receipt” was whipped out of her hands, smacked Jean in the face, and then promptly flew 2 blocks away. Katie ran to get it. Why was that so funny to me?? She had just dropped off a thousand pounds of garbage at the dump and she was DAMNED if she would lose that receipt.
— Oh, and on our way back to dinner, we had a spitting contest. Spitting INTO the wind. Awesome.
— There was an hour and a half wait for a table at Turtle Soup. It was a stormy wind-wracked wave-drenched Saturday night – and basically the whole town had come out to stand by the sea wall to watch Mother Nature. And now it was time for dinner. So we walked to PJ’s Pub, the wind now at our backs, pushing us along. Jean was almost blown away.
— Big dinner. Lots of talk. Sangria.
— Then we headed over to The Ocean Mist. The ocean heaving itself towards the shore, foam rushing underneath the deck of the bar – the deck where we were standing. The white floating seagulls had flown off for calmer landscapes – because it was pretty damn wild out there.
— I became obsessed with “Tamborine Lady” and I am working on a piece about her. She’s a modern-day Tennessee Williams character – even down to the bum leg. I so wanted to talk to her, but that meant I would have had to interrupt her wild gyrating tamborine playing. Seriously, I know it’s rude and everything, but I couldn’t stop staring at her. It would be like if Blanche Dubois walked into a fisherman’s bar, with her gloves and her ancient jewelry, and sat in a dark shadowy corner, fanning herself. You’d want to stare at her, too. Tamborine Lady. I have thought about her nearly constantly ever since my first glimpse of her. She had long thick white hair. And eyes with an intense frightening gleam in them. The Ocean Mist is a shack on the beach, cavernous, big, pool tables, a deck, you can actually FEEL the pound of the waves when you’re inside – there’s music, a crowd of regulars, food coming out of the kitchen … and Tamborine Lady. With her rituals, and her otherworldly preoccupations.
— Oh, and big discussion earlier about the Narnia books. I had set up my Mac for everyone and had shown them my geek-a-mo slideshow that I created of Cary Grant photos. Then came the big Narnia discussion and I realized that – with Sean – I was in the presence of a true Narnia FANATIC and I had best just get out of the way. It would be like someone trying to convince me that Cary Grant was born in America, or some other horribly WRONG thing. Like: Okay, you’re obviously an amateur at this obsession thing, not to be rude, but I am an expert – and there is NO WAY you can compete with me. NO WAY. Don’t even try, CHiPs. So talking with Sean was like that. It was too damn funny – because he caught himself at one point, like: “Wow. I just sounded like a total geek, didn’t I?” I said, to set him at ease, “I just showed you a slideshow I created of all of my Cary Grant photos.” Bursts of laughter. That was really all I needed to say. No need to be embarrassed about being a dork in MY presence – because when I’m nuts about something, I’m NUTS. We all talked about the Narnia movie. I asked Sean what he thought of it – knowing how important his opinion would be, seeing as he was a Narnia expert and all. He looked doubtful, hesitant … and he said, regretfully, “I didn’t like Mr. Tumnus’ legs.”
Now THAT is an obsessive.
Mmmmm, lovely, evocative story, as usual, Red! The Tamborine Lady reminds me of some of the characters who hung out around the federal courthouse in Los Angeles in the 80’s. The one that comes to mind is Eileen. She was a woman in her late 50’s, kinda looked like Arlene Dahl. Every day at 2:00 pm she took her place on the sunny street corner in front of the courthouse and did the same routine: sort of a modest bump and grind holding a football. She wore the same thing every day: kelly green bikini, kelly green stockings, kelly green high heel pumps, and glitter in her blazing red hair. Full Hollywood makeup. What a lady! The thing was, she nodded and smiled, passed the time of day with people, but she kept up her routine. At 4:00 pm on the dot, she left. The story was that one of the federal judges pissed her off about something twenty years before, and she was just protesting.
Loved her.
Stevie – wow. The glitter in the red hair! And a bikini? In front of a courthouse? That takes some guts.
I said to my sister – who knows a bit of Tamborine Lady’s back-story – “Even though she’s kind of tragic, and obviously nuts – I see a triumph in her actions. Somehow.” Jean was like: “It IS. It IS a triumph.”
Tennessee Williams was always confused by people who saw his female heroines as tragic, or desperate. He saw them as survivors. It’s like – these people who get STUCK, at ONE MOMENT in their past … like: time stops for them. Miss Havisham is another perfect example. Tamborine Lady is like that. I so wanted to talk to her – but then I would have interrupted her tamborine-ing and made her either self-conscious or annoyed. I decided to leave her alone.
“I didn’t like Mr. Tumnus’ legs.”
That’s going to have me in tears at least until the weekend.
Now comes the big question about your Cary Grant geekitude…do you have the photos organized in a particular manner? Like chronologically or something?
They are not organized in a particular manner – which adds to the fun (in my opinion). Because I am constantly surprised when I sit down to watch it. And oh, believe me, I sit down to watch it on a daily basis. And there’s music, and fade outs, and I am just in love with what I have created.
hahahaha
And I know – the fact that not liking Tumnus’ legs was the first and only thing he said about the movie showed me I was in the presence of a true dork.
I dare you to make a Cary Grant photo montage with music and post it on Youtube.
Oh man – if I could figure out how to do that I totally would!!
Dude, you have a new Mac, don’t you? There’s got to be a movie making program on there.
Oh, that’s right! Duh. So maybe I can transfer the slideshow I made into a movie form? Or something??
It’s hysterical – in the slideshow the huge Cary Grant heads float across the black screen – and then fade out – to make way for other huge Cary Grant heads to float by.
It’s so insane, but I adore it.
DO IT. I haven’t fiddled with mine a whole lot yet, but it can’t be that hard, given some of the blatant crap you can find on Youtube.
I had set up my Mac for everyone and had shown them my geek-a-mo slideshow that I created of Cary Grant photos.
I love that you’re a gigantic nerd.
hahahahahahahahaha
I am! A shameless nerd!!
Have you read this great piece about being a giant dork, Mark? I think you would really dig it.
Man, I have to start reading that blog more often. It basically summed up my entire life.
A couple years ago, a fellow geek and I were snarking on a young hipster/faux nerd we had seen walking down the street. He summed it up perfectly with, “Now I know how black people feel about whitey stealing their stuff.”
hahahahahahaha
And her point about the Latin club is SO well-taken. Now THAT is geeky. “Trivia night” is geekiness for people who aren’t really geeks. It’s geek-lite!
Now I want to start a Latin club in Manhattan.
That was the best part. I also know the proper Latin plural of “penis”.
Do the Latin club! You already have a great name for it: Latin in Manhatten.
I have a feeling that that name is probably already taken by some random Hispanic immigrant group.
But still – I love Latin. I even loved it in high school which is TRULY geeky.