A beautiful first day of spring here in Austin. Breeze, cloudless blue sky, high in the low 70s, dry, birds raucous, everything as green as a June day in New Hampshire.
My favorite quotation from today’s reading–
"I’m afraid she went as far to intimate that she believed this was a ‘vendetta’. An inappropriate vendetta.
Claire was quiet for a minute. She too had spent much time in universities. She understood the power of the inappropriate."
Zadie Smith On Beauty 158
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This afternoon I gave Owen Wilson a friendly punch on the arm.
About
2:40 pm I’m in the big new glitzy downtown Whole Foods market, studying
the menu at the smoothie bar. I decide to go for a Mango Tango (lemon,
mango, something, something and a bit of honey). I turn around to see
where the line for ordering might be. The place is packed. I’m
standing face-to-face with a guy sauntering by, smoothie in hand, who
looks a heck of a lot like the movie star Owen Wilson. I look at him
intently, he’s about six inches in front of me. A long pause as I
study his face and especially note the nose. He waits, expecting,
knowing, what’s next. He’s shorter than me, in a white cap, white
t-shirt and maybe white jeans. Little bit of blonde stubble here and
there on his face the way those poor blonde guys who have no beards let
happen in lieu of anything else. Maybe he’s a bit tired from last
night? hard to tell, seems as relaxed as ever. I decide hell, yes, it
is Owen and give a tiny decisive blink. He blinks back in
acknowledgement. I give him a little back-of-the hand-fingers punch on
his shoulder and say Hey, how’re you doing? I’m doing real good, he
says slowly. How’re you? Good. Pause in which we both decide that’s
it, tiny pause. Keep it going, man I say, in farewell, the glowing
halo now rising all around us. We both turn and move on, he on into
the scene at the market (which is one of the hot spots in
town—everyone always there buying and snacking and hanging out. It
is brand-new corporate headquarters, showpiece flagship store, just a
year old this month, the company stock has risen twenty-six percent
over the past year. One of Austin’s pride and joys.) I turn back to
wait from my smoothie. There has been a young guy on the periphery of
the scene, shaved head, maybe thirty, little catepillar of hair under
his lip. Previous to this he had just had a hip exchange of
affectionate greetings with one of the women who works at the smoothie
bar. She had gone off across the store while Owen and I were jiving.
He was now standing there waiting for his smoothie too. I said Did you
see who that was? Who? The guy I just said hello to? No, who was
it? Owen Wilson. Who is that? You don’t know? You from this
country? Yeah, are you? Yeah, but you really don’t know? I’m not up
on things, I’m a musician. Oh, you in the festival? No, I just moved
back to Austin. I’ve been in California, the Bay Area for about ten
years but I’m a Texette, I went here for college. Oh, say, if you had
it to do over again, hypothetically but with the experience you’ve now
had, where would you go to university again, UC Berkeley or UT? UC, no
doubt. So what do you do? I put music soundtracks onto environmental
type movies, tv shows, documentaries. So who is Owen Wilson? Well, if
you don’t know I guess it makes no sense to tell you now does it? I
hear my name called—Bob. I go to pick up my Mango Tango, the
compleat fan snob just blessed by the star. Later of course I think,
gee, I didn’t make any small talk or ask any questions, or anything.
Then later I think I don’t think I’ve ever bumped into a real movie
star like that. Reminded me of years ago when I was twenty feet from
Spiro Agnew as he walked through a hotel lobby not too long after he
had left the White House under a cloud of disgrace. Otherwise, hey,
Owen, just wandering around in Whole Foods like the rest of us, taking
in the developing scene of the music festival that arrived in town
today and will go all weekend. One of the biggest music festivals in
the country. No tickets badges or wristbands available as of two weeks
ago. Full moon tonight.”,1]
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Dear P & K
I thought you might like to know how my therapy is going here in Austin. After a week of trying we finally found Dr Frederick Fung who referred me to St David’s Rehab where I am doing PT in the pool with a treadmill in the water! + on land with a harness which takes the weight off of my feet. I gained 15 lbs in Mexico so there is a lot of it. I am also doing biofeedback which is very encouraging. The weakest part of my program so far is the Saebo, but that seems to be on track now with a new arm splint. This week I hope to see the orthotist & have some work done on my knee brace (straps, etc). The new "polio" brace did not work out & was donated to the in-patient program. Monday we will start the community swim program to go three times a week on our own. Here at the motel I also swim in an indoor pool about the size of a bathtub but I use my snorkel, mask and flippers and do a good number of laps.
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In Wimberly the other day at an art gallery we saw a painted church bench for sale. The image was Picasso’s Guernica, or parts of it, wrapped all over the bench. Painted furniture, the hot item in art sales these days.
In San Antonio yesterday we rode a boat along the river for the tour.
Marriott worked for years to get a hotel close to the Alamo. Finally
they moved the historic Fairmont hotel so they could build their own
new tower. At the time it was the largest building ever rolled down a
street, Guiness Book.
In BookPeople the other day I learned that Proulx’s Brokeback
was on a list for seniors at an Episcopal prep school in town, a list
of suggested not required readings. A donor wanted to give the school
three million dollars. But only if the school removed that book title
from the optional reading list. The school refused.
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