RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,171
(a philippe petit of my own)
A few basic things to rehash:
Back to that entire Philippe Petit
thing, two chapters back, I have
more to add. My son was, at
that time, about 8 or 9, and
we'd most often catch Philip
during that period when he
was doing 'performances' in
Washington Square Park. For
all I know it was a part of his
community service time, for
his misdemeanor from spanning
the Twin Towers. In any case,
due o the regularity of it all,
he began using, any number
of times, my young son in his
act. At this time he wore (Philippe
did), and performed in a theatrical
top-hat. He strung cable and rope,
nothing substantial, between a
few local park trees nearby, and
sometimes a bench or two. He'd
pass the hat too, and get tips or
whatever. My son was used for
handing up rope, or cable, or the
hat, etc. Philippe would do his
quick little act to the adoring
crowd. He also used one of
those long, balance, poles which
high-wire acrobats use. It was
nearly three times the length of
my son (maybe three times) and
to see the young boy handle the
pole - the few times he had to
pass it up, or move it out of the
way at ground-level, was funny.
Just something I always remember
anyway. Philippe never spoke much,
but he had a cool, Frenchified way
of speaking, and a very unique
face as well. I always enjoyed
that too; plus the knowledge
that here was the guy who some
6 or 7 years back had electrified
NYC and the country with his
weird feat of vaulting the Twin
Towers as he did - it all made
for grand presence. Which is easy
to say in a Frenchified way too!
-
When Petit wired between the
two towers, we (I) was nowhere
near NYC, having still at that time
hustled-to-hideout at Columbia
Crossroads and Elmira. To me,
the only real memory of it is,
maybe, Marvin Scott reporting
it all on WOR, from NY, beamed
in. I think it took on even more
of a reality because of that. There
were a lot of other NYC B-level
station newscasters then too,
though I forget the names. One
guy was pretty famous, and I
remember he came out to Elmira
once to participate in some sort
of baseball game or baseball
extravaganza, for fund-raising
something or other, with the
Elmira Pioneers. He was from
CBS channel 2, this guy. The
Pioneers were Elmira's very
own minor league baseball
team, the real stuff. Low-level
and all, but some names came
up through there. They had
their own little stadium and
all, and the games were pretty
cheap, like a buck and a quarter,
to get in. If this guy's name
comes back to me, I'll add it
in. [Jim Jensen]. He's dead
now, that much I remember.
-
This made me remember
another thing - way back in
High School, Senior Chemistry,
I had this bum-wreck of a
teacher named Robert Andes.
All that guy ever did (this was
1967) was - when not talking
about Carbon Chemistry or
extolling the Periodic Table
of the Elements, was go on
about his infatuation with
some babe newscaster, also
on one of those early channels,
named Pia Lindstrom. It got
really boring.
-
I stepped out tonight, after dark,
and walked these strangely wooded
paths. The wind was howling, yet
again, and the temperature had
plummeted...but, in a Proustian
manner it al reminded me of so
much else. (Free time, meaning
'time' out of structure, brings forth
things like this. Proust said a
remembered sensation in its
sensory immediacy but temporal
remoteness gives one an experience
outside of normal chronology.
It was pretty much exactly like
that tonight - years, and miles,
apart from all those times in NYC
when I'd be traipsing the streets,
in the very same fashion, in quite
the same weather and wind, and
coming to or from Chumley's -
where for a time I spend in
inordinate amount of time, and
sometimes money as well. My
sensation was about the same,
even though now I was amidst
trees, water, and what is mostly
ineffectually called 'Nature,'
here. The very same feelings
went racing through me - all
those resounds of memory and
place and temporality, of the
lonely times along Barrow and
Bedford Streets when, even
though amidst a crowd or a
group, I stood alone, just
absorbing all that was around
me. I fairly thing I absorbed it
all back then, in the 1990's, so
that I could relive and be brought
back to those selfsame sensations
today and here and now.
-
If I were to tell you that the one
conclusion of my life has come to
this - that 'Memories' come first,
and only then 'Reality' follows -
would you believe me? Or even
understand me....As, like a Philippe
Petit of my own, I turn time on
its head and undertake my own,
crazy, balancing act?
No comments:
Post a Comment