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tobacco work and clay - or even, if i had my way about it,

updated fri 26 may 06

 

pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on thu 25 may 06

would be 'The Beet goes On'...

Hi Lee, all...



Yes, well...too...

Everyone, children especially, should own at least
one, really good 'Sugar Beet' costume I
think...all
them wangley rootlets and so on, flailing rubberly
as they
walk or move...


And, of course, for adults to wear their work on
'casual
fridays' or something...and other occasions, you
know, weddings, bar mitzvas, public hearings,
funerals, baptisms,
confirmations, pta, court appearences, board
meetings, grocery
shopping...therapy sessions...church
picnics...lots of occasions really, can suggest
themselves for this, besides the excruitiating
limits of 'the stage' AS 'the-stage'...'the
play', AS 'the-play' and so on...


I would...

If I had one...


When I was in grammarschool, all the Children were
pretty much obliged to wear 'little children'
costumes, and, to pretend they were 'just' little
children all-the-time...and stay 'true' to their
given roles...and the teachers, and
various adults,
wore
'teacher' and "i'ma-na-dult" costumes...and were
supposed to pretend they were ('just') 'teachers'
and
'adults' and so on...all-the-time...too...

That...was the 'stage'...that...was the 'play'...

The school janitors, the cafeteria 'help' and so
on, of course wore their respective costumes...and
were supposed to pretend they were 'just' the
'janitors'
and 'cafeteria help'...

As with the Bus Driver, and Crossing
Guards...everyone pretty much...'cops', 'robbers',
'Businessman'...'farmer'...'mom'...'dad'...
'elevator operator',
'neighborlady' costumes and roles...everyone knew
everyone else would get mad at them if they did
not keep-it-up, stay-in-the-role
all-the-time...so...

Even Dogs and Cats had to obligingly wear 'dog'
and 'cat' costumes, and to pretend they were, you
know, 'just' a dog or cat, sitting there, lapping
water-from-a-bowl, running,
scratching,
or playing, whatever...

And, as far as I could tell, everyone got pretty
darned good at it, too.


This way, I guess, everyone could tell
at-a-glance, just
'who' everyone else('s costume) was...and could do
so 'from'
the point of view of 'their' own
characterizations/costume/role.


This was so droll of course...since no one really
'was' what their costume was, at all, and, they
were
all only just pretending...



...or were they?


Hmmmmm...




Phil
el ve


----- Original Message -----
From: "lee love"

<<<<<<<bigun>>>>>>>>>>.

Our friend Darice told us a story about
going to her son's
elementary school play about "Mashiko heritage",
to see here son
wearing a "pack of cigarette cotsume." He danced
and his lines were
something like, "I am cigarettes! When we smoke
cigarettes, we feel
older!" She was shocked and talked to the
teacher explaining that
she didn't think they should be encouraging school
children to smoke.
The teacher understoood & explained that the
student that followed
her son, was supposed to be "cancerous lungs" and
her lines were,
"but smoking can give you cancer!" She was dressed
up as diseased
lungs, but she would not go on stage because her
costume was falling
apart She refused to go on stage, crying.

One of my childhood farm memories is weeding
in the church's
enormous sugar beet feilds, in rural Michigan.

--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
My google Notebooks: http://tinyurl.com/e5p3n

"Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire;
Bring me my Spear; O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire! "
--William Blake