Dear Wes Clark--
Thanks, as ever, for a humorous and though-provoking series
of blogs. Two of your recent entries prompt me
to drop you a note.
When I was in college (co-majoring in Classical Civilization) I spent a summer
with my fellow students and our department chairmen in Greece and Egypt. One of my more vivid
memories (I have few; I was ill with amoebic dysentery for most of the trip - Important
Safety Tip: When they say "Don't drink the water",
then don't; also, when they say "Get a gamma
globulin shot before you go", get one) was of
our stop at Knossos.
Yes, the palace is indeed maze-like. It also still shows signs of
having been a pretty (not beautiful) happy place in a prosperous, happy
society. The walls are decorated with wave and dolphin motifs; the colors
are reminiscent of, say, a resort on Bermuda.
The Minoans seem to have incorporated the best of all the civilizations with
whom they traded and profited so handsomely that they had plenty of
leisure time. Their culture probably had as much in common with the
(later) "Golden Age" Athenians as, say, the Cayman
Islands have with Midtown Manhattan.
Though I've too heard that bull leaping went on in the palace (some of the
rooms must have certainly been large enough) there still exists a
medium-sized arena on the grounds of the complex where such sport may have gone
on as well. It is a circular amphitheater with a sort of long runway at
one end. My department chair said (with good evidence) that the space was
the first-ever theater in Western culture (bull leaping, acrobatics,
dramatic/religious pageants--it was all the same to them), so I was
particularly pleased to have seen it. Thanks for inspiring such a happy
memory in me.
Yes, rest in peace Vampira, aka Maila Nurmi.
Ms. Nurmi was a cult figure on the Hollywood punk rock scene in the mid-1980's, when I was
first living on my own in that wonderfully seedy area. Apparently, Nurmi had befriended and mentored many young actors in the
1950's (Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, James
Dean) when LA Community College was known for its theater program. She
was also rumored to have been Dean's some-time lover as well. Nurmi was said to have been a kind of den mother to vast
beatnik, jazz musician, transvestite/gay clique in
those days.
I saw her perform one night (about 1986) on a bill which featured a jazz
musician friend of mine at an East Hollywood
punk club. She was well past sixty--still striking in a dissipated
sort of way. The punk crowd really worshiped her.
Her "act" was an extended monologue. First
she performed a not-so-funny parody of TV-sexologist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Then she told an extended (and
hysterically humorous) anecdote about how she invited a twenty-year-old (and
very naive) Anthony Perkins to a dinner at her home. As a practical joke,
she did herself up in full Vampira costume and
had a number of her particularly bizarre and theatrical friends dress in
costume (leather outfits, bikinis, loin cloths) to portray her guests and
servants. The dinner ended (about halfway though) with a screaming
Perkins fleeing the house when a topless housemaid (wielding a battle
ax) asked him if he'd like a leg or a thigh...
One neat aside of Nurmi's performance was that program
also featured the aged actor MacDonald Carey (Shadow of a Doubt)
reading some of his own original poetry. Carey was a gentle, dignified
old fellow who began writing and publishing poetry late in
life. His work was exceptionally good; what was especially neat was that,
in the course of his performance (I'm sure few in the audience of
safety-pinned, Mohawk-ed punks knew exactly who he was) he really won
the crowd over. What a great old guy he was. "Like Sands Through The Hourglass..." huh?
Anyway, thank much for your continued efforts on the blog…
Best,
Tim