Monday, September 3, 2007

Spetmeber Scent Xperiment, Day 3



Invisible Day

I felt invisible yesterday, in a not-entirely unpleasant way. Did the Satsuma thing again, as per Rebekah's request, and did a whole bunch of unpacking and book-sorting. Read a chunk of "Mary Poppins, She Wrote; the Life of P. L. Travers" by Valerie Lawson, and I've hit the part where Travers starts hanging out with theosophists. I've decided that if I weren't such a card-carrying atheist, I'd be a theosophist instead; it just seems like a barrel of monkeys plus a bag of Doritos, you know? I also happen to agree with the theosophy slogan -- "There is no religion higher than truth" -- although the actual practice of theosophy involves quack seances, 'telegraphing' with the undead and so forth. Fun for a Saturday night, but not my idea of truth, exactly.

Still, there's no denying that theosophy attracted some really remarkable people, besides friends of P. L. Travers. From Wikipedia: "before his death Scriabin [a theosophist] planned a multimedia work, to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon". IS THAT NOT AWESOME? Also, Henry Steel Olcott "is still remembered fondly by many Sri Lankans." Man, that's one of my goals in life, to be remembered fondly by many Sri Lankans. Nifty.

So, yeah, lots of heavy lifting, light lifting, reading about quacky folks, and more lifting. Then there was Peruvian cuisine, and a Lee Hazlewood music tribute at Tangier, where everyone was ironically hip except me, because I was still wearing my unpacking/reading-about-theosophy clothes, and no amount of Satsuma goodness (now entirely faded) could make up for my utilitarian, shambly look. Not that I minded: the very last performer of the evening, whose name I sadly couldn't get, was just a man and a guitar singing Lee Hazlewood, and his purity and simplicity blew. me. away. It more than made up for all the pouting and posturing from everybody else that night, and I wanted to give him a hug afterwards.

Conclusions:
1. Being the perfume novice that I am, I'm learning that perfume does not magically renew itself (Renew! Renew!), and requires periodic upkeep. I'm sure this is painfully obvious to everyone except me, but I pride myself upon being a fast learner. Heck, I didn't learn how to properly blowdry my hair until last year, and now see how snazzy it is! This is what I get for being raised by a tomboy mom.

2. It's not a good idea to take perfume requests. Sorry, Bekka, but I was really in the mood to just smell soapy clean and nothing more. I guess there's no predicting these things, though.

3. I need to figure out a way to do a multimedia presentation in the Himalayas, and also hang out with many Sri Lankans.

P.S. The above photo was taken in my bathroom. Yes, I really do have a hula girl keeping me company. And I use the doll's head, which is hollow, as a cup to hold my toothbrush. More info than you ever really needed, huh?

4 comments:

  1. [ Original comment from Bekka imported from MySpace ]

    It was Mike Stinson.

    http://www.mikestinson.net/

    God, I love google.

    Posted by Bekka on September 3, 2007 - Monday at 5:07 PM

    ReplyDelete
  2. [ Original comment from Bekka imported from MySpace ]

    I've tried to recreate the line up for you, roughly in order:

    ERIN ARMSTRONG (she played harmonium & piano with a cutie guy on guitar)
    ANDERS AND WOODS (the one you had a certain suspicion about)
    HOLLY PALMER (the one with the boots)
    BIG SEARCH (the guy with the red shirt and the awesome voice)
    THE FINCHES (the girl with the autoharp and the guy with the goofy over-the-top guy)
    CLAIRE MCKEOWN & BRIAN CANNING (the blonde girl with the harmonium, guy with guitar, Charlie Wadhams on drums)
    THE SPIRES (the guy's with the electric guitars)
    CHARLIE WADHAMS AND THE HARMONY BROTHERS (you know... Cheekbones Charlie)
    MIKE STINSON (the one who looked like he had been preparing for this Lee Hazlewood tribute for the last several decades)

    The following acts were on the line up, but I don't remember seeing them if they went on while we were there:
    CORREATOWN
    BOUGARELLI

    Posted by Bekka on September 3, 2007 - Monday at 5:08 PM

    ReplyDelete
  3. [ Original comment from Astrid imported from MySpace ]

    It's a curious thing: Mike Stinson sounds tinny and nasal on his website, but when performing live, the guy had some real...oomph. I guess he's one of those musicians you have to see in person, or else something gets lost in the translation.

    Posted by Astrid on September 3, 2007 - Monday at 5:17 PM

    ReplyDelete
  4. [ Original comment from Bekka imported from MySpace ]

    Oh, I just went back and read your blogs and noticed you commented on my comments. I wish myspace let me know these things. I never remember to go back and check later.

    Also, is it sad or at least a harbinger of oncoming dementia that I at first spelled "read" as "red"? I find myself constantly typing homonyms when I write, and clearly I'm educated enough to know the difference. It just slips out into type somehow. Maybe I should start leaving my typos in. It would be an interesting and potentially endearing character trait.

    Lastly, I've checked myspace waaaaaay too much today. And made more comments than I have in the last year probably. I hope you like comments.

    I'm gonna go make a sandwich now.

    Posted by Bekka on September 3, 2007 - Monday at 8:33 PM

    ReplyDelete