Yo, Folks-
So, I’m heading back to Nashville to Zanies on July 20th and 21st. And, yes, I will eat more hot chicken now that I have a system.
It’s been a rough week. I think I have something called Post Vacation Stress Disorder. I definitely had enough of Hawaii. There’s really only so many sunsets I can gawk at and so many days I can spend on a beach. After a point you’re either in or out. Either you throw the life you know away and live off the land or come home. That’s the way I think. I could see myself growing pineapples or passion fruit, just laying back and selling them in my front yard. I would have to learn how to farm and buy land, but I can see myself in that groove… for a week or two, then I get anxious thinking about how anxious I would be and have to leave. I would have a new skill set but it's not practical.
So, being home has been an adjustment. The cats were welcoming for most part. In a completely odd turn when I opened my bag to unpack I went into the kitchen to get a soda and came back to find Monkey perched inside the duffle bag peeing on my clothes. I guess he did miss me. Payback’s a bitch.
I had a strange, cathartic moment watching HBO the other day. I turned on the TV midway into a documentary about performance artist Marina Abramovic. I had absolutely no idea who the fuck she was and I pride myself on at least pretending to have a sense of important artists. I had no clue. She’s been around for years and has done some very provocative pieces. Watching the doc, I realized how easy it is to mock performance art and condescend the ridiculous nature of some of it. Some of Marina’s pieces were nude, some with a dude she worked with for years who she had a relationship with. They did a piece to signify their breaking up by walking towards each other from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle and part ways. Simple pitch. One line description, but they did it. That kind of commitment to an amazing poetic idea just blew me away for some reason. The act of doing it is what is significant. The intent is almost negating but the power of the intent and following through is ridiculous, beautiful and touching. It is important work to those who allow it in. Which I don't always do. It’s all in the context. Comedy is insulated but has mainstream appeal. Performance art is so specific and esoteric but can run deep if you let it in. I just wonder if they talk about their pieces like we talk about jokes. “I love that bit you did when you sat not speaking at a table for three months in the middle of the MOMA and let random people sit across from you for a few minutes each. Great bit. Killed.”
I’m not sure what I am getting but I am starting a long, open ended performance piece that I will talk about on the show. I’ve already started it actually.
This week, the hilarious and kind JB Smoove blesses the garage with his presence and on Thursday the author and comic Sara Benincasa talks agoraphobia and sex. Good week.
Talk soon.
Love,
Maron
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