Piper Maru Eyes

Excellent day today. Following a conversation with a friend a few thousand miles away and three hours ahead (I love the internet) in which we discussed the joys of crab for Sunday lunch, we made a trip to Newport Beach and the world famous Crab Cooker.

We had smoked albacore and calamari and soft shell crab and king crab claws with their local-style potatoes, a sort of lump of mashed potatoes baked with cheese until crispy. Mmmm king crab claws. Oh and their lovely bread loaf. STB had coleslaw while I had the relatively difficult task of ordering the tomato slices. (I forgot to say 'tomayto' the first time and got a does-not-compute look.)

We went for a short walk to look at the ocean. There is a storm blowing through So Cal today and the cold wind was whipping onto the shore, depositing a fair amount of the beach sand between my teeth in that annoying way wind does. Really, I haven't faced such a bracing wind at the beach since the last time I was at Blackpool. (But you can't get rock or deep fried black pudding at Newport Beach.) We did see one person on the promenade being treated by the Lifeguards for Copious Bleeding - there's always one, isn't there? - and attempted to walk down the pier but were beaten back by the winds. We went to the more sheltered dead end road by the Crab Cooker that looks into the marina and found a drunk shirtless guy leaning over the wall attempting to coax his equally drunk and shirtless friend, who had fallen into the marina, to fly or levitate or something the ten feet from the waterline back up to the road. Both of them were bleeding from various grazes, so it must be the height of fashion at crazy old Newport Beach.

No one could pull him up so we encouraged him to swim to the wooden-floaty-walkway-thing to which the yachts were moored, but he didn't seem to have the courage. So his friend jumped...agh no!...into the marina and swam to it. Encouraged, the first guy made it to the slip. Being very fit, he soon pulled himself onto the floaty thing. However, his encouraging friend, not being a natural athlete, was unable to pull himself out of the water. His friend dragged him to a mass of piping and other slippery items that would lead to this being even more difficult for him and then left him to his own devices. He eventually made it out of the water. Meanwhile, back on land, their designated driver was walking up and down by the wall, staring in horror and occasionally saying, "Should I jump in too?"

Luckily she resisted this impulse. One thing we hadn't thought of was that the door from the slipway to the outer world was locked, so the last glimpse we had of them was of them attempting to climb a gate in bare feet and wet clothes. Hopefully DD thought of calling the marina management to get them let out. Now that they were out of danger of drowning, we didn't feel too bad about leaving them to it. It's all in a day's fun at the beach, isn't it?

Then off we went to Second Spin to look through the vinyl. I got an old Donovan record - Barabajagal - which seems in very good condition (and is described on the receipt as 'generic vinyl' - gee thanks). Oh, and a MGMT CD. And also some of this Blood Energy Potion.



People are strange, aren't they?

B+ isn't actually my type, but I guess it'll have to do. The bag's sitting beside me right now and it's doing really good job of looking like blood. I worked in a blood bank for years and artificial blood in movies really bugs me if it isn't right.

(I said that on this blog once before and Anonymous wrote in to say, "What if they don't want it to look right?" which I thought was a bizarre thing to say. Why aren't movies acted by papier mache heads on lollipop sticks in front of a bedsheet if they aren't meant to look like what they're pretending to be?)

The Dead Weather played a secret show in Chicago last night. 'Secret' must have changed meanings recently as the show was announced on Tuesday or so. The location was not revealed until Saturday, but that's still not a secret show. A secret show is booking yourself into a club under the name the Bell Ends or something (that's probably already taken. But I did think of a great band name today which they can use if they like. The Talkupines! Like a porcupine but chattier! Isn't that a good name? And it wasn't found on a Google search today so it's mine all mine. (This opinion has not been vetted by an attorney.)) and then when the Talkupines come on stage, it's actually them, in all their monochrome glory. That's a secret show.

My other band name from yesterday was Blogger's Banquet. Or perhaps that can be the Talkupines' first album title. Alas I wasn't the first to think of that but I can't at the mo see an actual band with that name. My acting great band name is actually The Soul Dead Brothers, a mis-spelling of the Soledad Brothers I once saw in an interview. I'm currently working on The Soul Dead Brothers' first single which will be called Piper Maru Eyes.

Piper Maru eyes are ones swimming with black oil, as in the X-Files episode of the same name.

(From Piper Maru, the X-Files)

A friend used it to describe the blacked-out eyes of the Dead Weather members on the inner of Sea of Cowards.



(Copyright is not mine. Scan by KD)

It needs its own song. Black Oil eyes may be the next vampirism.