very few of us left my friend
from the days that used to be – Neil Young
Cheech & Cole – Palm Springs Fine Arts Fair 2012
Two old friends from my Monaco Labs days, Scott Coleman Miller and Heather Gordon, were in town over the weekend to remind me that I come from somewhere. Scott goes by his middle name now and Heather has calmed some from the thrill of being nineteen and in San Francisco, but each retains a certain elusive essence. “Hey Heather,” Miller asked on Saturday night in typical ice-breaking fashion, “you still crazy?!” He looked around my place at the other friendly but less familiar faces, and qualified the comment – “I’m just sayin’ that because I knew her when she was a kid in San Francisco ..” But it wasn’t necessary. It was a welcome and novel New York experience for me, not having to stop and explain the back-story of every name mentioned in a particular tale. Miller commented on Lady GaGa at one point, asking “who wakes up one day and decides they’re going by that?” The irony proved too much for me and I blurted out “you got me there, Coleman.” Giving him shit about such things wouldn’t be nearly as fun were he not an unpretentious sort, quick to guard his purity unnecessarily and point out that it is, after all, his middle name. Much as I have historically bristled at the term, Miller fits the definition of an artist, never completely at ease with self promotion but locked in unconsciously when engaged with his work. It’s taken him from experimental film to kinetic sculpture and stencil, and while this pursuit may have occasionally sacrificed material comforts and security, his stuff has legs. He was relating the down side of having pursued this road less traveled on the last night of his visit, but doing so as we sat in his suite on the twelfth floor of a swank 62nd Street hotel. The week before he was screening his film and displaying sculptures at the Palm Springs Fine Arts Fair. Not bad for a kid from Elgin, Illinois.
10 Comments
Well done Rick. Hey Uncle Scoey got a great idea .. why don’t you make a kinetic sculpture using a crumber! You could spin an s-i-r around it. Take an idea or an experience and distill it into art…you’re welcome.
Thanks for the idea, Cookie! “Tis a crumber, Siiiiiiiir” (Of course Rick always adds the “Tis” & the long, drawn out “Siiiiir” to punch up the story, which it does, nicely.) Great post Rick. Saturday night in Brooklyn was fun. I felt bad about pulling that prank on Joe at the end of the night but he seemed to take it in the spirit it was given. I forget how great of an actor I am sometimes.
Signed,
Sir John Geelgood
Um, I believe that’s “Gielgud”, Chief. Perhaps you were confusing him with Dr. Feelgood – Mötley Crüe’s best-selling 1989 album. For the record (pun intended), I also enhance the story by having you say “that’s my position” after the waiter says “tis a crumber, siiiiir..” I mean if you really want to do you, then do it right.
Also for the record, what’s the correct spelling .. ‘Scoey’ or ‘Scowie’ ? I’ve always gone with the latter. (“There’s no ladder in that movie, Danny ..”)
I’ve always gone with Scoey like the comedian Scoey Mitchell…Scowie, seems to have a negative visual element to me that doesn’t match Dr Geelgood, one letter away from scowl and all…so what’s this acting job you/he did?
Scowie .. er .. ‘Scoey’ joked in faux-seriousness “don’t touch me” when this guy went to give him a ‘nice to meet you’ pat on the shoulder as Miller was leaving the party. The guy thought he was serious and awkward hijinks ensued with Scott assuring “I was totally just f*cking with you, man..” Thus the Coleman Gielgud label.
Gentlemen:
http://i.imgur.com/8XL3v.gif
yours in service to christ,
etc.
Dig the two “L’s” in “Paully” .. I like it. Reads like a Nirvana song. Who would have figured it would take til 2012 for another suitably hip Greek icon to emerge on the Hollywood circuit?
Let’s go with Scoey. also if i ever run for public office – this is my slogan.
I’m sticking with “Allister McAllister – Honest McHonest” from that sign you had on Golden Gate Ave. Best political slogan ever.
Who is this cookie character? I can only imagine John spears in a wig.
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