King Tom

King Tom deserves a post...

King Tom was skipper of the brig Lightning in Rescue.

He had another name, Tom Lingard, but the girl kept calling him King Tom.

In the end, the white folk just walk away... and that's ultimately the point I guess, except it comes at the cost of King Tom's honor, and his honor was his life, and so... well he goes sailing north, instead of into the sunset.

The sunsets were magnifique! The shallows were magique!

I think there are always faults in Conrad's stories... Sometimes his characters are stupid, but I suppose that's not unusual in the real world whereever that is found. I will never be in the shallows of the south seas; but now I have been.

So Who The Heck Is Morrissey

Yesterday, I catch this blurb on the Comcast TV guide about, I think, Blood for Dracula, by Paul Morrissey, and about it being some companion piece to Warhol's Frankenstein, and well, about a week or two ago, I watched this movie called Mixed Blood by Paul Morrissey,... and well, after that movie I remember wanting more.

I don't think I've ever quite seen a movie like Mixed Blood. There was a comparison on the Comcast TV guide with Dicken's Fagan... The young actors have faces that will be hard to forget... and yet, it's a movie from 1985, and the faces have probably long since grown old, never seen again?

All I can say is it's about a Brazillian (?) gang in Alphabet City, and there's really no hope, (sorry Barrack...), and the actors look like they're not far from home, nor is the heart of this movie... I sort of believe that maybe people do live like this. It's just that I can't imagine how I could ever do the same.

The Best Plum

Tonight I went to the store. Mainly to buy fruit and another gallon of milk. A week ago, or maybe ten days ago, I bought some grapes. They were sour. Sour grapes! I thought. Some of them were good, and then I was in FM and bought some more grapes, and they turned out to be very sweet... Very good.

Tonight, I thought about getting grapes before going to the store, but somehow forgot about them entirely when I got there. There was a big display for nectarines and for the same price, peaches. But I didn't want either nectarines or peaches. I grabbed four bananas. I had four bananas the other day, and they lasted a day or two.

I saw a tray of black plums, $2.98/lb. They looked firm. I like a solid black plum. Want almost the density of an apple, but then they need to be very black as well. If I were to have to pick, was told, well there can only be one fruit..., I think I would say black plums, but they have to be very firm, and very black... I picked 2 from the tray that I liked. Found a plastic bag to put them in. Hmmm, yes a waste.

Across the aisle there were Organic Black Plums. I only saw them after I'd stowed away the 2 chosen ones in the wasteful plastic bag. They also looked very good. Very firm. Very black. Though these were slightly larger, so I thought, Hmmm. I'm going to have to try one... And I picked one and added it to the group... bananas, plums, organic plum...

I used the self checkout and didn't bother to distinguish between the plums... I think the price for the organic plum was the same...

I had dry mouth all the while... It was a mild but warm summer day, and the heat only made me think of my thirst more... When I got to the store I'd seen a soda machine, and said, uh, no, and had thought about the water fountain, but again said, uh, no, thinking I could wait, and was looking forward to a beer when I got home.

But when I got home, after I found room in my freezer for food that I don't need, I unpacked the plastic bags and there were the plums. I thought, oh, this will quench my thirst..., and selected one of the three plums, and then on second thought, said, no, I should try the organic one... so I identified it (it has a special sticker attached...). I cleaned it. Then as is my wont, I went to twist the plum. Sometimes they will break along the pit... But this one, I could tell wouldn't break, so I thought, I'll just go ahead and bite into it... And oh! I don't think there has ever been a greater plum in all of god's (or the madman's) creation. There is no way I can explain the nirvana of that moment of perfect sweetness, delicious juices, utmost elation...

So, I guess I will have to leave it at that...