Two days of mortal hell and I got $400.00 cash at the end, handed to me by a girl who looked like a young Loni Anderson. I walked the subway pretending I was a guy named Sonny who had just made a deal in the bowels of Chicago. Yep, I have no life. Got up at 5:30 every morning, got home at 7:30 at night. Rush hour blues, had to go past the Loop towards the Hancock Building and then west. Missed a 70 degree day on Wednesday and met yesterday from the morning onward in rain and wind. Plastic chairs, no water or drinks, twenty minute lunches. A guy that talked like William Hurt if he had a broom up his ass all the way to his mouth was Mr. Pissy and his character was offset by Liz, who reminded me of the Cerevik girls of long ago, when I worked at The Gap in 1980. Without saying anything about how I spent those days, I can say that just before, ah, deliberations, a woman lawyer from NJ gave, um, closing arguments. I was in the front row, 36 of us in all, and whatever perfume she had on was enough to sway me into admitting a crime against my country. A bit of grey in her hair, she looked like Eartha Kitt circa 1966 playing the Bride of Frankenstein in a purple blazer. However you might think I described her, trust me. Wow. But anyhow, this explains my absence, fingers healing from gripping a clipboard and writing forty pages of cramped notes kept me off the keyboard here. I walked the subway as Sonny mostly to avoid the rush hour but to no avail. Yesterday, the rain was my nemesis. But I can still recall the lawyer, and I have fabricated a portion of her name, so Melissa Melendez will soon be a character in HOLLOWPOINT, my current project with John Kewley. I also missed out on the death of Charles Unruh, which I'll write about tomorrow.
I'm currently involved with a project called HOLLOWPOINT, with John Kewley, my co-writer on @JOYMOTEL. Set in 1965 LA and Chicago, I have to dredge up some period photos for reference. We used to have this massive amusement park called Riverview right in the middle of the north side. I have memories of the joint, thought it was demolished when I was eight. We never had a lot of dough, but it was a cheap day just to walk around. The highlight for almost everyone was Aladdin's Castle, with a maze of oddities, a rolling floor, a hall of mirrors, and such. But I came across the damnedest photo of the ruins. Aladdin himself was dismantled just about last, the front of it was simply wood, maybe acting as a sound baffler for the people who lived in the two flats across the street. The last ride I was aware of that was dismantled was the parachute ride, because in the early 70s you could still see the black monolith from the Tri-State Tollway. Didn't expect to be writing about Riverview tonight, but that one photo really did it for me...
OK, so I'm working on this story HOLLOWPOINT with Horatio Salt, the guy who hooked me in on @joymotel. I tell him this story, back in 1978 I'm washing dishes at Sam A****ino's Sandwich Shop. Well, it was really called Pa's, but no one called it that. Same had a wife who looked like Carly Simon and they had just bought a new apartment in this huge building that is actually still behind the Red Lobster at 95th and Southwest Highway. One Monday near the end of July, he heads out to Mirabelli's Furniture on 103rd and Cicero to look at couches. Rush hour on a Monday. Three guys get out of a van and shotgun him away. No witnesses. Sam had the place as a front for a chop shop. After about a month of closing the place by myself and riding my bike home at midnight down SW Highway, which just about led to my backyard, I quit, because there were always (or so it seemed) suspicious looking cars parked across the way, when there was no reason for there to be any vehicle parked. In front of a bridal shop? a martial arts studio? I quit in August and before the end of the month, the place was torched. I want to say it was a month to the day of the killing, but I honestly can't recall. The photos above show what is now taking up the place the furniture place once stood, so yeah, no witnesses. I don't blame anybody, though. The third photo is simply there because I like old buildings that actually have a name. But that strip mall between Rosie's and Pluto's is where Sammy got his. It wasn't too long after the place was torched that I started working with the Elvis band.
I am still in bad shape, but I put in a few hours on HOLLOWPOINT. I kinda looked like this all day. I've been having images of lobotomies. If this plays right, you'll be hearing R.E.M. Usually at this time of night, I'm listening to Cannonball Adderly or Dizzy Gillespie. Not tonight. I'm Martin Sheen. I'm Steve McQueen. No chance in the fucking hell I'm headed for.
