Mom spelled upside down

what a night of it ... like the Titanic only the opposite  ... one to remember. just might be the funnest dinner soirée I ever mounted, at least out here. Seven years on. Brian makes a "boll", a Louisiana kinda shrimp sausage corn and more high score galore stockpot taste sensation jamboree. Asa and Ry and charming son Carpenter come and we sing, well Asa does, Poor Johnny One note along with Judy Judy Judy. And then later, a little with Marvin. Sexual Healing. Yum.  

We begin outside. too windy. I bring in a table from the back porch and marry it to the coffee table. Brian wears the Perry houses goofy hat and stands sentry, once in a while, serving up a well crafted bon mot. Noreens' mug grows brighter brighter from late day sun. 

We talk about kidney in ice chest deliveries to Channel Thirteen instead of Roosevelt Hospital across the street,   Pavarotti, Ray Charles, Blossom Dearie, Bob and Barbra, Rickie Lee, lots of Joni. Asa sweetly says ... please, none of her sad tears ones tonight.  I play Zimmerman man singing Big Yellow Taxi ... never knew he recorded it... show them a pic of him, an adolescent Jew holding a dummy puppet in front of a Christmas tree. lots of special made Cheery Grove cocktails in Brians Think Big store giant shaker, vino. 

We talk Grove gossip, the big painted twenty foot long penis the old guy painted on his own roof to piss of his rich guy neighbor whos got two wives, two old kids, a brand new baby and a Mandingo. Every time he and his guests ascend his glass Gone With the Wind circa '26 staircase they see a mother of a monster man thing.  

Ry and I bust some moves, I show her pictures of my twenty year old parents, we talk Karen Carpenter, sexual assault, changing new york, blackclubs, white clubs all around the town. 

I play Blood on the Tracks for Carpenter, who wrestled with not one but two baby earlier and has lets go to the tape phone vides to prove it. More yak. Men vs women vs lesbians, hurricanes, Meatrack tales, favorite concerts ... Janis Joplin, Bruce, Patti Smith, I forget the others. 

Bryne tells great tales, true ones ... picking up her familys phone and Aretha Franklins on the other end asking for her viola playing Pop. Meeting Michael Jackson, who got interested in her and sister when he heard they were Sesame Street kids. Going to black clubs when she was fourteen, deeper, sadder stuff about bad men ways in the world way back then when.  how all our fav singers really had voices of their own back then then when we lived in our concrete Dodge City, about  forgetting a lot, more fun talk and tales, revelations, fun. yay what a fun days night. yeah, yeah, yeah. 

The first prize story winner goes to Asa, with a little help from his lovely ball and chain. Asa's ex, who I think tours with drag queens all around the world - talk about a great new hour of PBS Nature- she is walking back from the Meatrack, after Tea dance - i.e. an excuse for the rich or trying to appear rich Pine cha cha boys to gift one and all with their fresh out off the beach tans and new Raymond Dragon, show off look at me look at me t.   She's walking back from the tea dance thru the Meatrack and she hears something and looks up at a tree and there's a freshly minted twink in a pair of tighty whiteys duct taped - or was it roped  maybe - in a high branch looking all non chalant waiting for the bus to come like... she says to him "are you ok, do you need help?" he answers ... "I'm fine. I'm just waiting for someone."

The day before I ask my gang - "do people still go to parties? why would you want to go to a party ?" Brian adds cunningly "is anybody happy anymore?"  He says its from "Stairway to Heaven." Who knew. 

I was wrong.  Party rocks.