Sunday, July 08, 2007

You Can Have Anything You Want


So I'm walking down the street with a friend after buying a notebook with a picture of Che Guevara on it, not the iconic image of Che on the motorcycle but Che with a happy, bemused expression on his face and I'm thinking that Baby Grouchie can also use this notebook and be the envy of all his little friends when this strange man with a French accent stops me. He looks at my friend and says, Am I not better looking than you, richer than you, and why is she (at this moment he points at my forehead) not with me? I laughed and my friend laughed (he has as much interest in women as I have in math), and the man tries to kiss me on the cheek. At this point I'm thinking he's mentally challenged, totally deranged, or truly disturbed -- it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. You can have anything you want, he yells at me as I trot off into the distance. Anything!

The whole incident put me in mind of the Betty Specials, the high school theater group that was made up solely of mentally challenged kids who would put on a series of skits every year for the entire high school. Think Saturday Night Live in hell with even worse scripts. The Specials as they were called for short would bask in the attentive glow of our presence while we were threatened within an inch of our young lives if we made fun of them. The themes as I recall tended toward fairy tales, making wishes, and playing with beach balls. One horrible moment consisted of a group of them throwing around a red beach ball, yelling Bouncy Bouncy Ball! over and over again until one of them said, If you could have anything you want, what would it be? The person who was supposed to answer forgot her lines and looked troubled. On the street, I felt like her. What in God's name would I say to the Kissing Bandit? I looked down at Che for help while he smoked his cigar, looking at me as if he were about to laugh, the most revolutionary act there is.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
“Silence is argument carried out by other means." Che Guevara

Cocktail Hour
Drinking music suggestion: Exile on Main Street Rolling Stones

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Sunday!

10 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I think it's good that you can have adventures just walking down the street, Michelle. Some of us have to work for adventures. ;)

eric1313 said...

Let us all be revolutionaries, by that deffinition. Let's all laugh at the garbage handed out by the world. Let's laugh at the machinations, the manipulations and petty evil lies of those who convince themselves they tell the truth when they lie directly to faces that no nothing better to call truth.

I thank you for laughing with me my friend. Judi says hi. She's glad I'm on my path. Even if I'm not going to make her rich.

If you could hear me now friend, you would know I'm revolting... lol
...like this famous Frenchman
in the red background.

They wear his face on clothes
keep it in paintings
and don't know his name
don't know he's even French
they don't know what he said
they don't know why they wear him
like a new tattoo
their friend said was so cool

he's done with revolution
he's into pop culture now
and might play guitar
or sing emo ballad bullshit,
sitting framed in death
as he was framed in life
as someone's symbol
as a marketing device
not as a man
but only a face in black relief
against the modern red sky
his face against his own words
or a red background, why?
the symbolism is dead
like he is,
dead on paper that made it
look so pretty

Anonymous said...

We can acts, two!

Anonymous said...

I have blisters on my wee wee!

Susan Miller said...

There is a fear, I think, that when you get it, when you finally decide what you want then you think "fuck, this wasn't what I wanted". So you get scared to want too hard for fear you might get it.

Or maybe not.

the walking man said...

Now I am not you, but had the man made contact with your cheek and delivered the kiss, I may have been European about it and turned the other cheek for a second greeting and said "nice to have met you, my friend and I now have to go about getting the things we want"

Then your question of his sanity would have been answered which as you state "you can have anything you want." Even answers to questions that we may not want.

Jason said...

I wish I had your skill for attracting the weird. I have the gift for attracting the vanilla.

Cheri said...

I have met a man who shares the trait for attracting "strange" people, much like you and myself. I might have to blog about that haha.

Anonymous said...

myCajunQ
FoxlyTigersLady
CheR2!
Shazammmmm
OMightyEyes
Smiles
JeanJacket
70sRLiveWithU

Anonymous said...

Somebody stolden our us, two.