Time For Three.

The Wi-Fi I’m lifting from some Fairfieldian locale is weak and won’t last. There’s only time for three items:

1. I’m not blond anymore, as of this morning.

2. Switching to blue feels like living in another country.

3. Iowan highways are charming and sweet. I forget and am reminded every time I cross the Mississippi.

From a bedroom on the Fairfield town square,
Papergirl

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Nellie Bly, First Woman Reporter Interviews Papergirl: Art/Life Chat No. 1

NB: Congratulations.

PG: (nodding.) Yes. Thank you. One month down.

NB: How do you feel?

PG: Well, I’ve got my July 1st outfit picked out already, if that tells you anything. I’m driving to Iowa tomorrow for a two-day gig and I’ve got my Youssou N’Dour and my Didion packed and ready to go.

NB: Sounds like you’re ready to move on.

PG: Always. Well. Pretty much always.

NB: (Shuffles notes.) It looks like you had very few lapses throughout the month. 

PG: Oh, no. I never cheated with caffeine or clothes or guava. There were two times I played non-Callas music. Well, and when Michael Jackson died, but that was different.

NB: Is it too early to ask you what you’ve learned so far?

PG: I’ve learned a lot about the artists I selected, of course; their perspectives, their passions, all that.  I figured out that most people don’t know what to say when you tell them you’re doing a year-long project in which, for example, you wear yellow the entire month of June. I guess I expected that, but a few times I felt isolated in a negative way. I genuinely appreciated silence this month. And I have a new found appreciation for yellow that I never had before.

NB: Any predictions for July?

PG: July 1st marks the 20 day countdown to my surgery. I’m scared of the can of lychees sitting on my counter.

NB: Trepidation.

PG: Yeah, a little. It hit me earlier today that I’m following up one musical artist who doesn’t sing in English with another one, so I’m embarking on another month of music sung in a language I don’t understand. This project isn’t a walk in the park, but of course I wouldn’t be doing it if it were. At least I have plenty of blue clothing.

NB: I have a blue blouse you might like.

PG: That’s great. Yeah, I’d love it. Thank you.

NB: It’s in my car. I’ll get it in a minute.

PG: Yeah, yes. Great. Thanks.

NB: What do you feel when you look at the next 11 months?

PG: (pause.) Elated.

NB: Great. Thank you.

PG: (beat.) So can you get that…?

NB: Yes.

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Art/Life: June’s Closing Time.

I have one more day of June to go, but I thought I’d do a little roundup of the particulars.

BOOKS READ (in order)
Diary
Fight Club
Choke
Invisible Monsters
Survivor

FILMS VIEWED (in order)
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
Querelle
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Lola
Veronica Voss
The Third Generation

GUAVA EATEN (incarnations)
raw
in a smoothie
baked into scones
as nectar/juice
blended into a cake (via guava paste)

MUSIC PLAYED:
A whole bunch of it. Several albums, over and over. Callas’s greatest hits, mostly.

And I wore yellow at every moment. And I never drank any caffeine. And coming up to the end of the month, I have several thoughts.

- A month is a long time. When you’re living specifically, you don’t tend to ask, “Where did the time go?”
- I am seriously considering going back to coffee. I miss it as much now as I did the first week. I think coffee may supply some missing human amino acid.
- It’s going to be hard to let go of some of these elements. I hadn’t thought about how when the month switches over I might have a little separation anxiety. I mean, I’ve lived with these elements in a concentrated way for almost 30 days. I hadn’t thought about how, starting Wednesday, I can’t listen to Callas and I can’t wear my new favorite yellow shorts. And I didn’t get to watch half the Fassbinder I would’ve liked. Incredible stuff. I hadn’t considered this perspective in terms of restriction.
- Going from June to July will be the first switchover. That will be a new experience, too. So far, I’ve just started the project. I haven’t made any transitions. I’m super curious about it.
- In some ways, this was a most challenging month and, because of that, a great way to start. Yellow was no joke and neither was opera and neither was going without coffee or Diet Coke. I didn’t particularly like Palahniuk, and though I did love Fassbinder and the flavor of guava, as I look ahead to next month I wonder if I didn’t just complete a particularly difficult time in the whole process. Again, since it’s the first month, there’s nothing to compare it to. Time will tell whether or not June was any more difficult than than the other chapters.

Tomorrow night I have my portrait taken. Hopefully my face will convey all this. Maybe I should wink.

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