28 March 2008

The most beautiful thing I ever saw was...

... sunrise on the ocean in Guilford, CT. It was New Year's Morning and I was with Rachel and Josh on the way home from New York City. We had tried to get into the NYE Phish show, but I bought a fake ticket for 60 dollars and 3 fake hits of acid for 10 dollars. Some hippie chick who was a friend of a friend took pity on me and told me to stick out my tongue. After she put the tab on my tongue, her fingernail tapped the back of my front teeth on the way out. I'll always remember that detail. Hours later, after losing my mind at midnight in the middle of Times Square, where the noise from the crowd seems to come crashing down on you from above, we stopped in Guilford. We were on our way home. We tried to call Tori, who lived in Guilford, but she was away for the holidays. After we called her house, we were on the way out of town when we came around a corner and there it was, the first sunrise of the new year, 1996. The rocky shore was covered in ice and glistening, the surface of the ocean was reflecting all the colors in the sky back up into space and into my soul. We beamed for a bit and drove off.
... a Herb Ritts photograph of Frances Bean Cobain, Kurt and Courtney's daughter, circa 1995. Kurt Cobain's death affected me pretty deeply, and I had written a spoken-word thing called "Goodnight, Frances Bean." I had drunk a few beers and gone with friends to the MFA to see the Ritts exhibit, and from the instant I saw that picture, I was caught like a fish on a hook. She was maybe 6 years old, staring out with eyes that showed me the world.
... The final scene of The Devil's Rejects. Our anti-heroes nearly meet their end at the hands of Sheriff Wydell, but they escape, cut up, bruised, and bloodied. They wake up in their car, in the sunlight, and we hear Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird. They look at each other, and they look down the road. Captain Spaulding looks at his daughter and laughs a laugh that says, "It was good, it was real good." We still hear only Freebird. They look down the road again and Otis hands out the guns. Finally we see down the road, a line of police cars, behind which stand a couple dozen cops, all their guns pointed at our anti-heroes. As the song starts to pick up, they get ready to go. They raise their weapons as Otis puts the car into gear. Of course, they die, but Spaulding never loses that smile that says, "It was good, Baby, it was real good."
... a phoenix, rising from the ashes
... My brother and his wife holding their newborn daughter
... Beth dancing
... Gabrielle in space over my head
... a street performer dressed like a tree holding and blessing two stuffed monkeys who may or may not have been infused with the spirit of two very real people.
... Stonehenge
... there are more,there will always be more.

1 comment:

Kevbot said...

Stonehenge really is beautiful beyond belief. I think that's the only thing from this list you and I have both seen.