My lips are on fire!
The time:Today, a day like any other.
The place: B. books, music, cafe, West End.
The set up: So today was to be the day of the crafts fair across the street in Centennial Park. No big woop, should be fun / artisan-esque activity...until that is, the sky opened up for rains. But before this all traspired, Erin (the other Erin who works in the store and is blonde and an athlete who played everything under the sun in her day, but is still an avid runner) comes running up to the register. E: Did you see that Blonde Woman? Rin: Who? (looking quite puzzled) E: The blonde woman in the skirt! (Getting excited now) Rin: The one in the pink tank top? E: YES! What did she buy? Rin: A bunch of magazines: Oprah, the one with Jennifer Gardner on it..LUCKY, uh, Frieze, and some others. Why? E: She's with the Flaming Lips! The lead singer was just upstairs! Rin: What's he doing
here? Did you talk to him?! E: They're here for Bonaroo. Uh. No I didn't talk to him. He's outside...you can still see him! I'll cover the register! Rin: (moving towards the window) I can't see him. E: He's behind the Vanderbilt sign. Now he's going to cross West End! Rin: (finally spotting him with a huge grin on my face) No shit!
This would be enough excitement for one day. The spotting of Wayne Coyne would be enough, more than enough for a day in the life of B., especially after my jaunt to the ER the night before.
The pay out: The day spins on and on, nothing special. I'm at Info 1, and a woman comes up and asks me about a book - the new Susan Sontag,
Regarding the Pain of Others...I take her to it, put it in her hand, etc...The registers look pretty clogged up, so after finding the book, I go to act as backup. Low and behold, a man comes up holding the very Susan Sontag title I'd just found. And yes, this woman was blonde and happened to be wearing a pink tank top. I looked at him closely. Yes, it was Wayne Coyne. I froze. I wanted to say something, but what should I say? I couldn't figure it out, at least not in time. I wanted to be all, "Are you Wayne Coyne?" but I wasn't quite sure if that was his name or not (and yes, it is). I wanted to say, "Are you the lead singer of the Flaming Lips?" I wanted to say so many things, but everything sounded trite or lame or out of a movie somehow, so I just opted out...and was out of time. But, either way, I half met Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, found a book for him, and yea, gave it to him with a smile. The funny thing is that I was listening to an old tape of my show this morning as I drove to work. One of the last songs I heard before work was "Waitin For a Superman" -- one of my favorites that I obsessed over, by...well, you know who it's by.
Today
As a certain Marty Northrop sits to my right, I have to ponder: Have I shown him all that Nashvegas can offer? We've hung out / chilled / caught up on Godard / hit a Radiohead release party at which was shown a kick ass cartoon to "Hail to the Thief" which was truncated rather oddly and early /had shepherd's pie and Rotier's famous cheeseburgers / played Galaga and seen some art / toured around downtown / and hit some of the highlights. What more? Tonight is another flick --
Divine Intervention, which should be promising...we'll see how it all goes. THen prolly out on the town. My allergies have been felling me to the point that I think maybe it's more than that. An infection? A sinus infection? Something upper respiratory? Ugh. I might have to return to the doctor's.
In any case...It's been great having Martaaaaaaay here. The morn promises pancakes before departure.
Been a Long Been a Long Been a Long Been a LOOOOONG ----
Today was a bit of a test of my strength, or my nerves, or just about every fiber of my being. It shouldn't have been such a big deal, but you know, it always is. Retail is retail, afterall, and sour customers come and go. Today, however, I was somewhere towards the end fringes of my tether. I was tired, and I had a coupla assholes come up to me and just be well...themselves. Usually I can shrug it off, telling myself it's their problem that they are socially inept or they are just angry frustrated little people. I can tell myself that they have no idea what they're doing or that they're being mean, but I'm not that optimistic or naive. Mind you, in my run of retail and suck jobs, I have encountered much worse people under less sleepified conditions than I did today. For some reason or other, I just couldn't handle it. They day seemed to drag on for years, each minute trapsing by in a slow meander that never ends. I picked up some Barthes to read while behind the reg to pass the time, but I always feel unproductive and bad when customres come up to me while I am reading something that obviously has nothing to do with my job at B. The piece I was reading was
Image / Music / Text, and from reading the first coupla pages, it has a lot to do with my theories about Jean Luc Godard and filmmaking technique. It could be an interesting work that would inform my last film project as concerns film, reality, hyperreality, and communication. I'll have to purchase it and see. I'm pretty jazzed about it though.
Last night I was going to have my usual study date with S. Kierke., but then other plans sort of developed. Andy asked me what I was up to, I gave the usual response regarding papering, and he was like, "oh really?" in a sort of diappointed tone. I managed to get convinced into going to a party out in Franklin that was a co party for birthdays and summer and all kinds of things. It was great because it reminded me of shindigs Dave or Tricia would throw at home, and the house reminded me of Barb's -- it even smelled like it and had the same floor. Bizzare. Afterwards, we went to play some pool, and I was playing frickin horrorshow - for some reason, when I walked in, I could just see the angles in another game's shots. And then I saw mine for some reason. Maybe Justin's tutorials weren't totally lost upon me afterall. After that it was bed by 3:30, and up by 7:15. To think that I used to run so crazy last summer...I was a madman then, I suppose...but maybe I've that in me still somewhere.
