Coming into baggage claim at the L.A. airport on October 21 around 8 or 9 p.m., out of the corner of my eye, I caught the profile of a woman I have loved since I was 16 - Joni. I wanted to pounce but somehow managed to restrain myself. Just as I turned to look again, she turned her head in my direction and there she was right there in front of me, straight shoulder length platinum blonde hair, eyes as dark as coal, dressed in baggy pants and no makeup. After a moment or two, I decided I had to say hello but by time I turned again, she was gone, like wind in the roses, back to Beverly Hills. About a year ago I just missed her in SOHO/NYC leaving the gallery at which she just hosted an art show. So close, so far but good enough for now!
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Nice one. You should've run up to her, grabbed her by the ankles and said, "Paint a starry night again!"
I met her once, and she dedicated a song to us....."Slurry Slings the Dues." Great moment.
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Are you making that up, jonilogue? It's pretty funny!
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Don't be bitter oh funny one! You see with painting, when it's done, it's done. No ever asks a painter to paint a painting again, do they?!
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Last Chance Lost, wordchick? It's OK. It's a quandry what to do when you meet someone famous that you admire.
I had a bad experience with meeting Joan Baez after a concert. Maybe she was tired or something, but she was totally condescending. I asked her for her autograph, and she wasn't nice about it. Actually, I didn't really want her autograph; I wanted to chat with her about nonviolence, because pacifism is one of my interests, but I didn't know how to get the conversaation started. I felt terrible afterward. I threw her autograph away, and I thought, "Well, Joan, go pass your Ghandi candle to some young people in France and quit complaining that nobody in the U.S. will listen to you, and I'll go home and think about pacifism by myself." But, like I said, maybe she was just having a bad night, and I'm sensitive. To me, she's a political activist who sings, and not really an artist. I still like some of her music. Some favorites are THE BEST OF FRIENDS, FISHING, and, well DIDA, of course. :-)
I've had other good experiences with meeting famous people. I met the great Anglo-American poet Denise Levertov at a literary festival at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She did two readings on two different nights. On the first night, there was a party for her and I went to it, and I was kind of bored and she seemed bored, but I was too shy to talk to her. I kept going outside across the street to smoke on this bench, and next to the bench was a big pine tree, and these white owls had a nest of baby owls. The parents were hang-gliding in in the moonlight with food, and the babies would pop up their heads, and it was surreally beautiful. I wanted to go get Denise Levertov and show her, because she was a nature enthusiast, but I was too shy. The next night, I asked her to sign one of my books, and I told her I love her "Olga Poems." She was standing on a step above me, and for a split second I looked fully in her eyes and she looked fully back, and I felt loved and inexplicablly like I truly met her.
I also met the wonderful Chinese-American writer Maxine Hong Kingston, and she was fun and thanked me for taking the time out of my finals week at school to come hear her speak. I laughed because it was the most interesting thing that happened at school that quarter.
I also got to meet the neurologist writer Oliver Sacks. He is hilarious.
I don't think I'll ever get to meet the great artist Joni Mitchell, because I never go to the West coast and she doesn't tour anymore. For me, she is someone so special--I don't know what I would do if I did get to meet her. She really is more than even a great artist to me. My mother had a brain injury and was inaccessible so much of the time, and I was raised on Joni Mitchell. I listened to her music all the time. She has taught me so much about the world, our culture, life, love, people. I feel she is a sort of substitute mother for me. I mean you can be mentored by someone down the street, but you are also mentored by the books you read and the music you listen to. So, if I ever do see her while I'm choosing my apples at he grocery store or picking up bags at the airport, maybe I will shout over my shoulder, "I honor you!" Then, I'll run.
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I sort of regret what I said about Joan Baez. I think she was tired. She is not that young to be doing concerts and traveling around on a bus. I'm sensitive and sometimes too touchy. I do like her music and listened to a lot of it growing up. I have read both of her autobiographies. She didn't go to school that much, and I was that way in high school and the first two years of college. She had some sort of anxiety thing going on. With me, I just needed space. I studied on my own and listened to music.
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