I’ve just stumbled home from a sweet gathering up at Tara’s place. My SPANK BRIGADE sticker has been peeled off and stuck to the bookshelf. If I keep this up, I’m going to have quite the odd collection of little labels. Jen is leaving the country for her merry home Austrailia, so we got together to send her happily off. Elaine was there with Spike, and Ennis, a girl I know through Mike. Too tired to remember any more names now, though I’ve known some of them for years. Jen went for a walk and when she came back, about half of us had the stickers on. I somehow ended up being number counter for everyone. Sitting in the big round bamboo chair, my voice quietly counterpointing the resounding smacks that bounced off the walls. Crack. One. Crack. Two. Crack. Three. Maybe I should feel a little guilty as when it was my turn I broke the toy, a blue plastic shovel, but I don’t at all. The second toy to die. Elaine’s “Who’s Your Daddy’ paddle also snapped. It’s the little details that help me remember. How the little balls of chocolate crisps were greasy on my fingers and how the light shined off a silver ring shaped like a hand grasping that girls finger. I tried to trade the lube in my grab bag for candy when I left, but no takers. Candy I have a use for.
Earlier I went for dinner and a movie with Ray. He didn’t get the message that this evening was canceled, so we said to hell with it and went anyways. Zubees then Tinseltown. The restaurant was packed with film industry people. There’s a particular leather coat the men wear, I swear. I can pick them out of a crowd by that coat. We sat outside, sandwiched between conversations that had nothing to do with movies and everything to do with away from set gossip. I felt lucky we were off to Sky Captain. They sent us first to the wrong theater, so we missed the very beginning, but oh, it was beautiful. They even had dinosuars. I can’t think of one precious moment in pulp culture they left out. Even the plot was blatently foolish, yet still had that printed on cheap paper logic. I couldn’t stop smiling, not for a moment. Every few minutes one of us would punch the air in victory. “Yes! They did it!” Zepplins, towers, giant robots that didn’t look useless. Hugo Gernsback might have cried. Ray pointed out that the gun the hero first pulls out is the same make that Burroughs shot his wife with, and I wonder if they did it on purpose, it’s that well put together. It’s laid on thicker than blood. Don’t go expecting anything but raygun gothic with every stop pulled, but go. I’ll go with you. I want to see it again. Cocaine powder, right in the eyes.