Monday, June 09, 2008

Your Stage Name



Saw a very thin young woman in a t-shirt the other day, one with a set of ribs painted on it. You, no doubt, could see her ribs through her skin as well and she smoked in the summer heat, to kill hunger pains, I imagined, always the fiction writer. An older woman passed her on the street, thin as a Dachau victim, looking wretched and sick, an image of the future had the girl been paying attention. How strange, I thought, to wear the inside brokenness on the outside, but then again, not really. Our pain is often written on the body whether by choice or nature.

I once saw a television show where a woman mutilated herself with thumb tacks. "I am forbidden to go into Office Max," she said. "It's my trigger. I start to feel faint if I pass one." All those tacks waiting and whatnot! So much mystery in the ways pain finds us. I was once in a bar where a very drunk woman in an old-looking wedding gown sat down next to me, Blanche DuBois come to life. "My marriage is over," she said. "I should have stayed with my first husband. The second is a disaster." She couldn't remember anything so the conversation kept circling around the predictable loops. She gave me a fake name, Marissa, and told me it wasn't real. "Your stage name," I said. I looked around the bar, but there was nobody around. Like so many plays, the audience seemed to have left, leaving the actors still performing their lines as if it were a full house.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence." Man Ray

Cocktail Hour
Drinking summer cocktail suggestion:

Silver Cloud Room

Lemonade
Two shots of vodka
Strawberry puree
Serve over ice.

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Monday!

6 comments:

chris said...

A TV show where a woman mutilated herself with thumb tacks.

I of course being the heavily tattooed person understand how somethings become a statement on the outside. Tattoos I would more than likely say are antisocial behavior, with things such as FTW, written in old english letters, I know what it stands for but not everyone needs to.

Being in Tattoo shops, where a lot of body piercing takes place, I can honestly say that I have seen some pretty strange stuff, Corset piercing, Down the center of the back, or very sensitive body parts that no needle will ever come close to on my body, Oh but it increases the sexual sensitivity they say. Who gives a Rats ass, all I can say is that they have been doing it wrong in the first place.

We all have our own Demons to deal with, but you will more than likely never see them anywhere, especially on public desplay.

Charles Gramlich said...

That last line is absolutely killer. You do these better than anyone.

the walking man said...

My stage name is...Bob. It hurts me that my parents did not name me bob. Not Bob just bob. Other than that pain is where it finds you, office max when you're not looking or just in an old wedding dress regretting the past.

bob

Lana Gramlich said...

An interesting post full of good points. The drink suggestion sounds scrumptious!

Billy Joe said...

I knew a person with anorexia/bulimia who was as thin as air on Mt. Himalaya, yet when she looked at herself she saw fat. Strange how reality is what we want to see. "Been down so long it looks like up to me."

Billy

laughingwolf said...

sad, indeed....